Skip to main content

tv   Morning Joe  MSNBC  October 29, 2012 3:00am-6:00am PDT

3:00 am
time for a couple quick e-mails, tower. >> chris writes, up buying "d" batteries. no shortage here. shipping to friends in the tri-state area and a florida fruit baskets. my smoke detector started beeping every 30 seconds. >> time to get ready, but you heard bill karins, turning in this afternoon and this evening, the worst of it. so get ready now. "morning joe" starts right now. we should plan to see heavy rain that lasts for 36 hours once the storm starts to hit later tonight into early
3:01 am
tomorrow morning. we all know what this means for some communities in new jersey. it's been one of our priorities to give these communities so often hard hit by the flooding and the necessary flexibility to act. and so act first and worry about the dep later, okay? this is one of those times that uses one of my favorite sayings. it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, all right? get done what you need to get done. >> good morning. it is monday, october 29th. that's ocean city, maryland, you're looking at right now. with us on set, msnbc contributor mike barnicle and msnbc and "time" senior political analyst, mark halperin. we'll get right to the latest on hurricane sandy. flights are canceled. subways are shut down and millions of people are bracing for an historic storm up and down the eastern seaboard. high winds and rains are beginning to hit places like ocean city, maryland. hurricane sandy will drench areas from north carolina to new
3:02 am
england and behind the initial impact, what could be a devastating storm surge. let's go straight to meteorologist bill karins with the very latest on where the hurricane's at. bill. >> good morning to you, mika. and this storm is on schedule, nothing has changed. if anything, it's a little stronger than what we thought it would be at this point. and it's going to be moving on shore within the next 12 to 18 hours. this will be a 24-hour period for areas from the northern mid-atlantic, washington, d.c., all the way through boston that a lot of us will never forget during our lives as you hear the winds howl later today. the storm to this point has been paralleling the coast from florida to north carolina. that changes now. it begins to take that left-hand hook into new jersey. the winds unfortunately 85 miles per hour. over the weekend we were down to 70 in a tropical storm. it's increased in intensity. the pressure has lowered. it's moving at a decent clip at 15. it is headed for the jersey shore at approximately 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. this evening for our landfall.
3:03 am
and then it will begin to do the slow weakening process as the storm stalls out somewhere over philadelphia or southern portions of pennsylvania. the heaviest rain threat is to the south. the highest winds and surge is to the north of that storm. the biggest thing it's going to impact the most people, and i would expect 5 to maybe 10 million people without power this time tomorrow. power outages will start especially this afternoon as the winds crank up, and then the power outages will go out throughout hundreds of thousands of people during the early evening hours as the storm moves inland. we could see winds gusting up to 80 to 90 miles per hour, even in metropolitan areas like new york city, but definitely through coastal spots. winds right now, they're starting to pick up. now we're heading up towards 40-mile-per-hour gusts from the jersey shore to long island including new york city. and as far as areas to the south, it's not a walk in the park either. you saw those pictures from ocean city, maryland. and a lot of heavy rain headed for d.c. to baltimore. if there's going to be major river flooding, it would most likely be in the
3:04 am
maryland/delaware area. and the key to the damage on the coast, the high tide cycles. we're about two hours away from the next high tide cycle. the last one last night was bad with minor damage. this one will see major damage. and that's, again, approaching in two hours from now. we'll have those daylight pictures for you. but the really devastating one will be later on tonight. if new york city subways are going to flood, it would be 8:00 to 9:00 this evening as the storm moves inland, the highest summer along with high tide, that's going to be the troublesome spot from connecticut, new york city all the way down the jersey shore, guys. an historical storm so rare for this time of year. and unfortunately up through election day, lots of people still won't even have power back on yet. >> all right, bill. >> it's going to be epic. >> it is. we'll be staying with you obviously through the show. the storm surges are going to be absolutely monstrous. "new york post," closed. "the daily news" talks about "shut." "the new york times'" lead story also about the northeast bracing
3:05 am
for the storms. "the wall street journal" talking about the monstrous storm that's targeting the northeast. and on the front of the "usa today," also talking about millions bracing for the worst of monster storm sandy. and then "the financial times" talking about how sandy adds to election tension. and it does. that was a big question yesterday in the political world. >> yeah. >> how this was going to kbangt the race. >> it could impact it in a number of different ways. it depends on what happens. all indications are this is going to be huge. there could be a lot of different situations in which homes are decimated up and down the eastern seaboard. >> up and down the eastern seaboard. we'll see what happens. it certainly freezes one of the closest presidential races we've had in quite some time, just freezes it in its tracks. a lot of things happened over the weekend. >> yeah. >> a lot of polls, significant
3:06 am
endorsements. let's take a look at some of that. >> we'll stay on the weather as well. to politics, though, with eight days left until the election as this storm swirls over it, a number of new swing state polls give a hint or perhaps add confusion to where exactly the race stands. in florida, mitt romney leads president obama according to real clear politics average of polls, when you break it down, it's central florida where the president needs a boost. along the interstate 4 corridor where the state's races are off and decided, likely voters are siding with mitt romney, 51%-45%. >> over the past several years when i've been critical. republicans for being too extreme at least in their tone or temperament, i've always said elections are won in the suburbs of philadelphia and the i-4 corridor. most florida insiders now thinking that florida's firmly in mitt romney's camp. the i-4 corridor, a six-point gap. and mark halperin, that's a fairly significant gap for an area that bill clinton carried
3:07 am
in '96 and that president obama carried. >> if that poll is accurate, romney will win florida for sure, if he's going to carry i-4 by that big a margin. most indications are that he's going to win the state. however, you have to point out, the obama campaign says they're competing in all the battleground states, and they are. the president's one event today is in florida with bill clinton, 10:00 this morning. >> going to be right in the middle of the i-4 corridor. >> right in the middle. they're competing there. they're not giving up. they're using their most precious asset today, one obama visit with bill clinton to go to florida. so they're not giving up, but there's no question romney has an edge there right now. >> you usually have, mika, north florida against south florida and central florida being what makes a difference. the south florida poll out of miami-dade shows the president -- >> largest county in the state, 52%-43%. >> that's not a surprise. i will tell you, this next poll,
3:08 am
though, is a surprise. >> all right. let's go to virginia. the latest "washington post" poll has president obama clinging to a four-point lead. last month it was an eight-point difference. shall we go to ohio? >> i want to talk about virginia for a second. mark, republicans got some good news in the form of an ohio poll we're about to put up. but couldn't really enjoy that because this "washington post" poll showing a four-point lead in virginia, that's just as bad news for republicans as the ohio poll was good news. >> i thought for a while that people were overly assuming virginia and thinking romney couldn't win ohio. in some ways ohio is a better state for him. virginia has all the big groups that are the president's base, younger voters, african-american, suburban women. i think the romney campaign might have to start thinking about a path with ohio but without virginia which is doable, but it does involve winning another big state or two to make up for that loss. >> that's what i was going to
3:09 am
ask you. as you look at that electoral map, we've always said you've got to win ohio. ohio's going to decide it. but if he doesn't get virginia, where else does he look? >> maybe iowa, wisconsin, certainly colorado. maybe minnesota or pennsylvania, both of which are not in play, that the obama campaign's playing some defense there, but he can do it if he can win some combination of wisconsin, iowa or new hampshire. >> the ohio news organization poll has it a dead heat in that state, 49%-49%. and also staying in the midwest, in minnesota, mitt romney's actually sliced president obama's large lead in that state. also an independent state, 47%-44 rs 47%-44% according to "the minnesota startribune." you also add on top of that, in iowa, you have a "des moines register" endorsement which is huge. >> that was a big endorsement. >> that is a huge endorsement of that state.
3:10 am
they haven't endorsed a republican since richard nixon in 1972. there are few endorsements that still matter. really matter. in iowa, the des moines register endorsement matters. >> not only that, look at the artwork on the front page. >> all right. thank you, barnicle. >> it's tightening up in the midwest. >> the midwest, wisconsin, minnesota. but the wild card in this thing we've already alluded to it is this storm. >> yeah. >> how does it impact early voting? power outages that might continue for a week to ten days through election day. that is a true wild card. >> yeah. mark. >> can we show this electoral map, if possible? >> sure. >> so willie asked if he doesn't get virginia, is it still possible? the answer is yes. give obama north carolina and florida, give him colorado, and give him ohio but don't give him virginia, that leaves it 262, romney, 256, obama. >> what if he wins iowa?
3:11 am
>> iowa's not quite enough. he would need either wisconsin or both iowa and new hampshire. either of those. or any two of the three or just wisconsin. so it's doable without virginia, but he still needs to win a state he's been behind in. >> sure is a heavy lift. >> nice gallon of red dye and sugar you're drinking. >> that's just for show. demonstration. i didn't order it. >> okay. >> so what did you think of the president? >> it was fascinating. we had a fascinating weekend. we went to new hampshire, the two of us, to the president's campaign event. we went to a school in nashua, new hampshire, a state whose four electoral votes could be critical in deciding the country's next president. >> the crowd was very excited to see the president. >> it was. >> the president seemed to be in really good form. >> yeah. >> seemed to be enjoying himself there. valerie came along. >> i spoke to valerie as well. we'll show that later. we had a couple of questions. we want to start with this one. we interviewed the president backstage and asked him about
3:12 am
the controversy surrounding the attack on the u.s. compound in benghazi. >> why has it been so easy for critics to say the administration does not have its story straight on benghazi? >> the fact of the matter is, this is a tragedy. there's all kinds of legitimate questions to ask because any time a u.s. ambassador and three other americans who are serving our country get killed, you know, we've got to figure out what happened and fix it. and most importantly, we've got to bring those folks who carried that out to justice. that's exactly what we're going to do. but i do take offense, as i've said during one of the debates, with some suggestion that, you know, in any way we haven't tried to make sure that the american people knew as information was coming in what we believed happened. >> was it the intel community giving you bad information early? >> that's what -- >> the stories keep changing. >> that's what we're going to
3:13 am
find out from the investigation. the truth is is across the board, when this happened, my number one priority was secure americans, figure out what happened, bring those folks to justice. we are in the process of doing that right now. congress has been getting the flow of information continuously from day one. and what my attitude on this is is if we find out that there was a big breakdown and somebody didn't do their job, they'll be held accountable. ultimately as commander in chief, i'm responsible, and i don't shy away from that responsibility. my number one responsibility is to go after folks who did this and we're going to make sure that we get them. i've got a pretty good track record doing that. >> there's a lot more to the interview. we also asked the president about the final days of the race. you can really kind of feel it inside the campaign. it's coming down to the wire. and if it was at all bittersweet knowing this would be his final campaign.
3:14 am
>> well, i mean, you get a little nostalgic. you start thinking about your first -- i was thinking about my first campaign when i was running for state senate. >> right. >> we had, like, four volunteers around a kitchen table and designing our own flyer and taking it over to kinko's. and now, you know, i'm not going to be doing this much longer. you know, the nice thing is, though, the energy, the crowds that we've seen makes me feel as if we're running this campaign in the right way. we're ending strong. and i think we're going to do well. >> so let's talk about the next four years and try and get as specific as possible. what is -- how would you define your mandate for the next four years, and what is -- i'd like to know the sacrifice that will not be asked of just the 1% but of the 99% as well. >> well, there's no doubt that our first order of business is going to be to get our deficits and debt under control. and the good thing is is that there's a forcing mechanism. the bush tax cuts end at the end of the year.
3:15 am
we know that we've got the sequester looming that's taking a machete to something as opposed to a scalpel. and after the election, i think that both democrats and republicans have to step back and say, you know what? this is something that the country wants to solve. if i've won, then i believe that's a mandate for doing it in a balanced way. we've already made a tril dolli dollars worth of cuts. we can make cuts. look at how to deal with health care cots under medicare and medicare in a speeerious way, b we're going to also need revenue. we kind of settle on the big question, how much government are we going to have, and how are we going to pay for it, then a lot of the other stuff falls into place. >> can you get medicare done? >> i think we can. >> because republicans demagogue it. democrats demagogue it. everybody's demagogued it through the years. can you go to the republicans and say, guys, we've got to do this together. >> well, here's what we can do.
3:16 am
look, i'm on record, i think turning it into a voucher is a bad idea. i do think, though, that anybody realistically looks at it and says, if we're spending 17% of our gdp on health care and every other country's spending 11% and their outcomes are better, that difference is 6%, that's our deficit and our debt. and so let's find good ideas -- now, i stole a whole bunch of ideas from a massachusetts governor that i think over time is going to save us money. the $716 billion that governor romney suggests i stole from medicare actually is money that we are saving in the system and extending the life of medicare. so i think there are ways we can do this in a creative way. but if we get that piece done, then immigration reform, i think, is there to get done. and i think your side is going to need to get it done because you can't continue to alienate
3:17 am
the fastest growing segment of the country, and it's the right thing to do. i think that infrastructure, joe, when you were in congress, since when did roads and bridges become democratic issues? those have historically been democratic and republican issues. >> a guy named ike kind of liked infrastructure, didn't he? >> the thing is is that we've got a whole bunch of deferred maintenance. interest rates are low. contractors are begging for work. putting folks back to work right now as part of an overall package that has also got long-term deficit reduction can jump start the economy at the same time that housing is starting to recover. and the education agenda that i've got is one that even jeb bush has occasionally complimented because we have said, you can't just give more money into a system without reforming it, and there's got to be more accountability. so there are a whole range of issues, i think, where we can actually bring the country together with a nonideological
3:18 am
agenda. the question's going to be how do republicans in congress react post-election. because there's going to be a war going on inside that party. it just hasn't broken out.en un to me. >> let's say you win. boehner is still speaker and the house goes either democratic or republican by one, you're still in the same situation the next four years, so what's going to make the difference? we talked to you about this one on one before. what makes the difference? what is there for americans to believe that democrats and republicans can work together? >> i truly believe that if we can get the deficit and debt issues solved, which i believe we can get done, you know, in the lame duck or in the immediate aftermath of the lame duck, then that clears away a lot of the ideological underbrush. and then, you know, now we can start looking at a whole bunch of other issues that, as i said, historically have not been that
3:19 am
ideological. let's take an example. republicans say that i've overregulated. now, the truth is i've put out fewer regulations than george bush did. some were significant. obviously, dodd/frank, welfare -- wall street reform is a big example of that. but i have actually initiated a whole process to look back at all the old regulations to see, are there ones that don't work? that should be a project republicans are happy to work with me on. because if we're going to streamline government, we should do it smartly. i've said that i want to consolidate a whole bunch of government agencies. we should have one secretary of business instead of nine different departments that are dealing with things like getting loans to sba or helping companies with exports. there should be a one-stop shop. now, the reason we haven't done that is not because of some big ideological difference. it has to do with congress talking a good game about
3:20 am
wanting to streamline government but being very protective about not giving up their jurisdiction over various pieces of government. so there are going to be a whole bunch of things i think we can work on. the first thing, though, is let's go ahead and get settled. how big a government. how do we pay for it? if we solve that problem, and i think we can solve it and we have to solve it, then i think we'll be in a position to make some progress. >> so how did you think the president was -- >> he seemed to be in good form. the rally was -- it was great to go and be on the rope line and see it from that vantage point, which maybe we'll show some video of later, and to hear from people and to monitor the crowd. it didn't feel like four years ago. >> right. >> but it definitely -- i mean, you know where i stand from my perspective, i think that he's learned a lot over the past four years and will probably apply it to the next four. it seems to me that the campaign
3:21 am
is hanging on. they seem confident. but not completely sure. >> and that's what we picked up, mike, not only with romney people but also with the president's people. there is confidence. >> yeah. >> but it's sort of this quiet confidence that hey, if we keep our head down, valerie was going to virginia and working hard in virginia. >> we have her interview coming up. >> we have her interview coming up. but, you know, nate silver said this is a 73.6% chance that the president's going to win. nobody in that campaign thinks they have a 73 -- they think they have a 50.1% chance of winning. and you talk to the romney people, it's the same thing. both sides understand, it is close, and it could go either way. and anybody that thinks that this race is anything but a toss-up right now is such an
3:22 am
ideologue, they should be kept away from typewriters, computers, laptops and microphones for the next ten days because they're jokes. >> well, you know, i think mark shares part of what i feel and what i have found from talking to people over this past weekend. democrats especially is that there is a level of confidence, but it's laced with a level of anxiety that reduces the confidence that this is still 50/50. and you're absolutely right. anybody who says, you know, this thing is in the tank for one candidate or another, huh-uh. it's not there. i think you found the same thing. >> democrats who think they're going to win believe as they have all along romney is unelectable, he's just not an acceptable choice and will win because we've done enough to disqualify him. i spent friday night and friday day with romney. he's performing well in those battleground states. democrats who aren't seeing him may be overestimating the extent to which summer and early fall
3:23 am
attacks on him really did disqualify him. >> there were lots of screaming women who wanted you out of the rope line. >> it was terrible. >> wanted you out? >> he was too tall and in the way. >> in the way. no, i'll tell you what -- >> it was fun. >> a lot of democrats, a lot of people there wanting pictures, willie. it was sort of like, you know, i'm thinking, dogs and cats living together. >> they liked joe. >> we can all get along. >> no rs it w, it was fun. it was a beautiful day. much more coming up including white house senior adviser valerie jarrett, connecticut governor danell malloy, governor bob mcdonnell and political director chuck todd. up next, harold ford jr. and mike allen with the "politico playbook." and the latest with hurricane sandy throughout the morning. we're back with more "morning joe" in just a moment. the capital one cash rewards card
3:24 am
gives you a 50% annual bonus. and everyone likes 50% more [ russian accent ] rubles. eh, eheh, eh, eh. [ brooklyn accent ] 50% more simoleons. [ western accent ] 50% more sawbucks. ♪ [ maine accent ] 50% more clams. it's a lobster, either way. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. with a 50% annual cash bonus, it's the card for people who like more cash. [ italian accent ] 50% more dough! what's in your wallet? ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪
3:25 am
[ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. it's a smell of a good time. this is the juniper! oh that is magical. [ male announcer ] when you combine creamy velveeta with zesty rotel tomatoes and green chiles, you'll get a bowl of queso that makes even this get-together better.
3:26 am
3:27 am
27 past the hour. time now to take a look at the "morning papers." we'll start with the" weiiscons state journal." despite agreeing to a truce this weekend, syria's air force and activists attacked pro-government positions. it exposed the dire situation and the likelihood the fighting could continue for some time to come. >> and "the wall street journal" reports that a mounting debt crisis have spain split in two. there have been protests of tens of thousands of people who say they are footing the bill for
3:28 am
much of spain's troubled economy. candidates currently lead in a regional poll. >> and from our parade of papers, "the seattle times," microsoft launches its latest smartphone today. the new model in an attempt to grow market share. currently microsoft's phones make up less than 4% of the worldwide markets. today's rollout also includes the new operating system windows 8, xobox music and tablet. am i getting that right? >> close enough. i actually hear that the new windows system 8, i hear it's really good. i heard that from my son. i haven't heard anything positive about windows from somebody in my son's generation for about 15 years. >> yeah. ever. >> well, actually since, you know, they had start me up as their theme song for, i think that was windows '95. >> that was way back. >> i'm serious. i heard this weekend that the new operating system's supposed
3:29 am
to be really good. >> works quicker, more stuff. >> you know, it works. >> it works. >> it works. >> it's a low bar. >> that's an apple joke. apparently very portable, you go everywhere you go. again, for a kid that, you know, starting in about 1998, windows became the leisure suit for my son's generation. but for him to just out of the blue go, man, windows 8 is great. >> what, are leisure suits out now? >> not for me. in fact, i was wearing a leisure suit when we interviewed the president. i had this silk shirt with dogs boxing. she made me take that off, too. so i just put on a polo suit. >> i think you should have left it on. look who's here, harold ford's here. >> what was your best silk shirt? >> i had a wolf howling at the moon right here. >> did you? >> did you have that one? >> yes, of course i did. you did have the baby blue leisure suit, right?
3:30 am
>> of course i did with the ruffle shirt. harold ford jr. is here which is good news. how you doing? >> i'm doing great. i had the deer. >> did you really? >> trotting across. >> i still have it. if i'd have known you wore yours this weekend, i'd have worn mine. >> i did. >> weaver also got mike allen with us, chief white house correspondent for politico. >> what is his favorite printed silk shirt? >> there are so many. >> mike, what were you rocking back in the '70s? >> i might have worn a leisure suit to church. >> really? >> wow! >> wow! >> so cute. >> that's all he wore. >> let's take a look inside the "politico playbook." you've got obama versus romney, your lead story this morning, five hidden factors. let's whip through some of them beginning with latino enthusiasm in colorado. >> yeah, this is a place that the president thought he would have a big advantage, but now is struggling. he is hoping to make up what he's lost with white women, with white men with latinos, he had
3:31 am
that amazing line in the interview for "the des moines register" endorsement that you were just talking about where he said to the editors, not knowing at the time that it was going to be released. since we're talking off the reco record, the reason that i'm going to win is hispanics. he's been doing a lot better with them in nevada, though, than he is in colorado. another hidden factor is governor scott walker's turnout operation in wisconsin. this is the flip side of what the president has working for him in nevada. in nevada because of harry reid, they know every last democrat. in wisconsin, because of scott walker, they know every last republican. another big "x" factor, barnicle was talking about the storm as the ultimate wild card. here's one of the reasons that it could really be disruptive to the campaign. in this final week, there's almost nothing more important to the candidates than these big rally the base, motivate
3:32 am
supporters events. already, it's only raining, and already the president has canceled an event in ohio. mitt romney's canceled an event in virginia. and also, it's going to suck up so much media attention. so it freezes the race, and it all depends where you think the race is being frozen. the best e-mail i got was from a man who said this is the climate saying you should have talked about me in the debates. >> and we'll see how it affects early voting as well. one of your other ones here, you mentioned "the des moines register" endorsement. sometimes we pooh-pooh endorsements, whether they're from human beings or from newspapers, but this one actually seems to matter. >> yeah, no, that's a great point. mark halperin was talking earlier about specifically "the des moines register" matters. also, this is going to be a galvanizing event in that state. it took boston completely by surprise. they didn't see it coming. and it helps them build with their supporters this momentum idea. you have the combination of this
3:33 am
endorsement, the good polls that you showed at the top of the event, the size of their crowd rallies. they're able to add up a list of factors that say this is why they're winning. i like joe's 50.1% idea. that's probably right. but this helps them make the case internally to their own people, hey, we could win. maybe we even are winning. >> i was going to say also, the "florida sun-sentinel" out of broward county, one of the more liberal counties, they do not usually endorse republicans. they endorsed romney as well. i'm not saying that's going to swing broward county in any direction towards romney, but you also have "the chicago tribune," a very conservative newspaper, endorsing barack obama, hometown newspaper. but it's not as cut and dried as it was with these newspapers four years ago. and sometimes endorsements matter, don't they. >> they do. and it could spell a kind of schizophrenia also within the public. if the newspaper editorial boards are behaving this way,
3:34 am
you may find states or parts of counties that don't normally vote democrat or republican, don't normally go -- i should say betraying or departing their normal trend. so it just reinforces what's been said all morning. this is a close race, a tight race and will remain that way with a few wild cards including the weather thrown in here in the last seven or eight days. >> what do you think swings it, harold? we've got eight days left here. if it is a 50/50 toss-up at this point. >> i think turnout, what was talked about at the debate in boca just a few days ago. joe and mika both reinforcing that point. and two, i think a lot of people have made up their minds. you know, the october 3rd debate when romney was able to change the narrative was critical. but there are a few more undecideds than we thought. and you said it, there are still people who could change their minds. >> do you think it's a 50/50 race? >> i do. i think it boils down to who gets their voters out. and i think the storm may impact
3:35 am
my party a little more adversely than it impacts the other side here because there's such a dependency right here at the end on early voting. >> all right. mike allen, we'll talk to you soon. eight days to go. >> have a great week. >> stay with us. when we come back, we'll pause for a quick look at sports. the san francisco giants have completed the sweep. extra innings last night in detroit. highlights and the day in the nfl just ahead in sports. [ female announcer ] imagine skin so healthy, it never gets dry again. can your moisturizer do that? [ female announcer ] dermatologist recommended aveeno has an oat formula, now proven to build a moisture reserve, so skin can replenish itself. that's healthy skin for life. only from aveeno. anncr: every president inherits few have faced so many.
3:36 am
four years later... our enemies have been brought to justice. our heroes are coming home. assembly lines are humming again. there are still challenges to meet. children to educate. a middle class to rebuild. but the last thing we should do is turn back now. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message. to start her own interior design business. she's got a growing list of clients
3:37 am
she keeps in touch with using e-mail marketing from constantcontact.com. constantcontact is easy and affordable. it lets her send out updates and photos that showcase her expertise and inspire her customers for only $15 a month. [ dog barking ] her dream -- to be the area's hottest interior design office. [ children laughing ] right now, she just dreams of an office. get a free trial at constantcontact.com. one is for a clean, wedomestic energy future that puts us in control. our abundant natural gas is already saving us money, producing cleaner electricity, putting us to work here in america and supporting wind and solar. though all energy development comes with some risk, we're committed to safely and responsibly
3:38 am
producing natural gas. it's not a dream. america's natural gas... putting us in control of our energy future, now.
3:39 am
let's break for a little sports here at 6:39 in the morning. >> are you going to say it or is mike going to say it in. >> what's that? what oh, the prediction? wait. let's cue up the tape. mike barnicle five days ago, his prediction of the world series. i don't think we have the tape. what was the prediction? >> i had tigers in five. >> close. >> it was close. >> you're only nine games off. >> it's close. the san francisco giants entered, as mike barnicle predicted, game four in detroit just one win away from sweeping the tigers. game tied at 3-3 in extra innings. top of the tenth, man on second
3:40 am
for marco scutaro of boston. >> why can't we get players like this? >> exactly. >> traded to the giants midseason, delivers a base hit to center field. austin jackson fields it on the hop, comes up throwing. giants take a 4-3 lead. bottom ten, two outs, one-run game. giants one strike away from a world series title, but they had to get past triple crown winner miguel cabrera. >> again, the 2-2 pitch. got him looking! and the giants have won it all! >> joe buck with the call on fox sports. sergio romo ringing up cabrera for the final out of the game, the final out of the season. the giants sweep the tigers out of the world series for the 4-3 win in extras. pablo sandoval named the world series mvp. he joins babe ruth, lou gehrig and hideki matsui with a .500 batting average and three home
3:41 am
runs. thousands of fans on the streets of san francisco celebrating the world series win. street closures. >> it happens. >> the first national league team to win two world series in a three-year span since the big red machine in '75 and '76. there you go, the giants, despite your terrible prediction. >> the giants have a tremendous fan because, any really do, very impressive fan base, and their general manager is from concord, new hampshire. >> really? we didn't do that. the other big news of the week, vanderbilt wins again. >> yes, thank you for saying it. homecoming, i was down there in nashville, they beat umass 49-7. >> umass, what do you mean? >> now you're knocking your home state school. >> let me tell you something, you can go back and check the stats. i'm a stat freak when it comes to college football. me and nate checked the stats in
3:42 am
november. umass always has a 66-point chance of winning on the road going back to 1902. check it out right now on the goog google. >> there you go. vanderbilt's 4-4 with four winnable games. >> unbelievable. a little nfl, giants/cowboys in dallas. 16 seconds to go in the fourth, down five. tony romo, watch this play. >> we know what's going to happen. >> throws it up to dez bryant. bryant looks like he comes down with what would be the game-winning touchdown. >> cowboys win. >> they call it a touchdown, but let's review this. the replay says fingertips out of bounds. >> oh, no! >> before the rest of the body. >> that hurts. >> i hate it when that happens. >> giants hang on. >> you're kidding. >> literally by a fingernail. >> that is horrible! >> giants win 39-24. >> that's great news. also it's got to be great news because you know when the giants win, the jets win. >> pleelet's go to the meadowla.
3:43 am
jets taking on the dolphins, another terrible performance. third quarter, jets in the red zone trying to get points on the board, down 27-3 in the third quarter. it's not going to get it done. interception for sanchez. jets lose 30-9. it might not have been that close. jets now last place, 3-5. i ask you, joe scarborough, if you're not going to put tim tebow in a game like this, just trade him. >> but you know, you're starting to sense there's a real problem between rex and woody. >> woody. >> i say that because yesterday right afterwards, i'm listening to the jets' press conference because it's what i always do. i walk around listening to radio. right afterwards, i swear, i'm listening to rex and they go, are you going to try tim tebow out next weekend? no. why? because. because why, coach? because. mark sanchez is our quarterback. coach, do you ever think about putting him in? no. it was said in such a way that you know rex ryan is angry. i don't care what he says. he's angry that woody johnson
3:44 am
brought tim tebow in. and if he can't play, if he can't deal with it, he needs to go somewhere else. let me tell you, i will say this. if you're looking for a silver lining, mike, yesterday watching this jets game, their offense may have been bad. their defense may have been bad. but their special teams, they sucked. i mean, this was -- woody's going to have to do something. the gm's going to be fired. and i'll tell you, rex either plays ball with him or rex is going to have to go. >> he didn't bring tim tebow in to cover punts. >> helmet on the entire time. >> valerie jarrett next. >> rex ryan has a problem with tim tebow. play him or trade him. >> valerie jarrett next. ♪
3:45 am
[ construction sounds ] ♪ [ watch ticking ] [ engine revs ] come in. ♪ got the coffee. that was fast. we're outta here. ♪ [ engine revs ] ♪
3:46 am
3:47 am
welcome back to "morning joe." a live look at the capitol. and boy, mika, washington is going to get absolutely
3:48 am
hammered. >> hammered. >> hammered. jersey is. all up and down the coast. we'll see what happens. >> two things about this, the storm surge, obviously, not looking like it's going to be backing off, but also the length of this storm. once it hits, it doesn't go away for quite some time. >> it's going to go for a while. >> it's going to be grueling. >> i think in the northeast the storm surge will probably be the worst coming into the city. i'd be surprised if a good chunk of lower manhattan is not under water, right, willie? >> not only have they shut down the new york stock exchange, they're not even doing electronic trading. >> transportation. >> they shut that down since 1988. >> we had over 300,000 people evacuated from lower manhattan yesterday from battery park to tribeca, evacuated. >> yeah. >> throughout the west village, everybody in the low-lying areas. my in-laws have been asked to evacuate as well from where they live. >> they're expecting widespread
3:49 am
power outages. >> they found out, the co-op, that they're related to you. >> let's not even disclose that publicly. >> you're just trying to tie a hurricane into your own problems. >> it's called subterfuge. >> let's talk quickly about the election. there were a flurry of polls out this weekend. we had an ohio poll that showed it split. that's one of the first ones. we don't know if that's an outlier or if that's the future, if that's momentum. a virginia poll, "washington post" poll showed that the president was ahead by four points in virginia. you kind of -- you look at a poll like that, and you say well, gee, if romney's losing by four in virginia, how does he win? then you see the ohio poll, "the des moines register" endorsement, polls that seem to favor mitt romney. can you remember an election, harold, where there were as many cross-currents that picked up a trend to tell you this one is going to win the election. >> since i've been able to vote
3:50 am
in '92, it may have been the closest, but it was clear that clinton was surging, '96, 2000. 2000 obviously was a close race, but you didn't have these kind of dynamics and histrionics and emotion at the end. i agree with what john heilemann said last week about ohio. without autos, without auto manufacturing, it would be very hard to see how the obama team can continue to have excitement and emotional momentum on their side in ohio. it could very well be that the car situation and the help that this administration provided could be the stonewall. however, you look at this momentum, and mike, you follow campaigns. you follow political efforts. and when you have this kind of momentum heading into the final week, it's got to be a good feeling for the romney campaign as they look at the last eight days of where they are. >> you know, usually in campaigns, joe, you know this better than any of us sitting here because you've been on the ballot. you get an indication four, five
3:51 am
days out that something has tipped within one campaign or another. and it's set in motion. and so you sort of know who the winner will be. that's not the case this year. i fall back on something that you keep hearing repeatedly when you're out there talking with people, that the president of the united states somehow -- well, we know how -- did himself irreparable damage in that first debate. and it allowed a certain percentage of people, perhaps enough to swing this election, to take a look at mitt romney and say, you know, he's an acceptable guy. >> yeah. >> off that first debate. >> we start to get that feeling out of the convention. you start to feel like okay, maybe the president's going to create some separation here. we were going to start feeling what we felt four years ago where it was moving toward president obama. and then it was completely blunted by exactly what you're saying, that first debate performance by the president and a good one by mitt romney. >> willie, you brought it up, and i've seen it, too, mika and
3:52 am
i have seen it wherever we go, for some reason liberals, democrats, they're scared. i don't know if they're just naturally -- more naturally worried than conservatives, but everywhere i go, people come up to me and grab me and go, it's going to be okay, right? he's going to win. >> well, i live in the heart of obama country. i live on the upper west side of manhattan. >> and they're calm. >> no, they're not. not particularly calm, but it's because they believe this is a really important election. they think mitt romney would be a disaster for the country. so yeah, i think there's -- they still have confidence in the president, but they're worried that it's as close as it is this close to the election. >> i think there may be a shock, mika, that it's kind of like you, the first time it hits you after the first debate that mitt romney could actually win this thing. it was actually pretty shocking to you. >> shocking. we've got to go to a break, but now you have this massive storm coming. and who knows what will be left in its wake. and that could change everything. so adding to the uncertainty
3:53 am
now, the potential natural disaster. our conversation with senior white house adviser valerie jarrett is ahead. also, connecticut -- >> it was great. >> that was fun. we had a very good time in new hampshire. >> you know what was kpoiting, too, watching valerie with the president on stage, it's like her first valley. she's so excited watching the president, watching the people. talk about somebody that really, really believes that what she's doing, you know, is right. >> is for the country. >> makes a big difference for the country. very exciting. >> governor danell malloy and governor bob mcdonnell will be with us. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.
3:54 am
3:55 am
i just finished a bowl of your new light chicken pot pie soup and it's so rich and creamy... is it really 100 calories? let me put you on webcan... ...lean roasted chicken... and a creamy broth mmm i can still see you. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.
3:56 am
3:57 am
when we come back, nbc news political director, chuck todd, joins the conversation. >> that's great! i love chuck. and meteorologist bill karins with a complete update on hurricane sandy. >> you know what bothers me about chuck, though? >> what? >> he acts like the whole world revolves around washington, d.c. he'll probably be coming on. >> it's kind of a big story, actually. we'll be following hurricane sandy every step of the way. keep it right here on "morning joe." wooohooo....hahaahahaha!
3:58 am
oh...there you go. wooohooo....hahaahahaha! i'm gonna stand up to her! no you're not. i know. you know ronny folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy are they jimmy? happier than a witch in a broom factory. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. talking about the walmart low price guarantee. that's your receipt from another store? you know it! let's put it to the test. butterfinger! nestle crunch! baby ruth! oh my gosh, i love candy! and if you find a lower advertised price, they'll match it at the register. that means i can buy more! oh my, gosh! that's the walmart low price guarantee! see for yourself! bring in your last receipt and see how much you can save. save more on the candy your family loves with hauntingly low prices on all their nestle favorites. get more halloween for your money, guaranteed. walmart!
3:59 am
with a vial and syringe. me, explaining what i was doing at breakfast. and me discovering novolog mix 70/30 flexpen. flexpen is pre-filled with your pre-mix insulin. dial the exact dose. inject by pushing a button. no vials, syringes or coolers to carry. flexpen is insulin delivery my way. novolog mix 70/30 is an insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults with diabetes. do not inject if you do not plan to eat within 15 minutes to avoid low blood sugar. tell your healthcare provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions, including if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. most common side effects include reactions at the injection site, weight gain, swelling of your hands and feet, and vision changes. other serious side effects include low blood sugar and low potassium in your blood. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions, body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat, sweating, or if you feel faint.
4:00 am
i would have started flexpen sooner, but i thought it would cost more. turns out it's covered by my insurance plan. thanks to flexpen, vial and syringe are just a memory. ask your doctor about novolog mix 70/30 flexpen, covered by 90% of insurance plans, including medicare. find your co-pay at myflexpen.com. ♪ atmix of energies.ve the world needs a broader that's why we're supplying natural gas to generate cleaner electricity... that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and it's also why, with our partner in brazil, shell is producing ethanol - a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane. >>a minute, mom! let's broaden the world's energy mix. let's go.
4:01 am
welcome back to "morning joe." mike barnicle is still with us. joining us now from washington, nbc news chief white house correspondent and political director and host of "the daily rundown," chuck todd. chuck, good to have you. >> so you can't show -- you show all these towns, you can't show washington? >> wah, wah. >> you show new york city, it's raining a lot harder here. >> there you go, cry baby. let me tell you something. i want you to know, chuck, because i knew you were going to complain about it, we did the foreshot, we made sure we had the upper west side, tribeca, we
4:02 am
made sure that we had central park. >> don't forget battery park. >> we had battery park, right? >> zone "a." >> we had zone "a." come on, we're covering the zone from all the angles. >> from all angles. >> from all angles. we have jim cantor e, he's hole up at the ritz bar down at battery park. we're journalists. >> mike seidel in hell's kitchen. >> exactly. >> let's get right to the weather. the beginning of sandy's effects are arriving up and down the mid-atlantic. winds are expected to reach 90 miles an hour, and already those living near the water have been forced evacuate. today it's expected to hook west and take aim at the northeast coast, leaving tens of millions of people just hours now to prepare. the entire new york city transit system is shut down. schools are closed along with those in baltimore, boston and washington, d.c. meteorologist bill karins is here with the very latest on the hurricane. bill. >> good morning to you, mika.
4:03 am
and this storm is on schedule. nothing has changed. if anything, it's a little stronger than what we thought it would be at this point. and it's going to be moving on shore within the next 12 to 18 hours. this will be a 24-hour period for areas from the northern mid-atlantic, washington, d.c., all the way through boston that a lot of us will never forget during our lives. as you hear the winds howl later on today. so the storm as to this point has been paralleling the coast all the way from florida to north carolina. that changes now. it begins to take that left-hand hook into new jersey. the winds unfortunately 85 miles per hour. over the weekend we were down to 70 in a tropical storm. it's actually increased in intensity. the pressure has lowered. it's actually moving at a decent clip, too, at 15 miles per hour. it is heading for the jersey shore at approximately 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. for landfall. then it will begin the slow weakening process as the storm stalls out over philadelphia or southern portions of pennsylvania. the heaviest rain threat is to the south. the highest winds and surge is to the north of that storm.
4:04 am
the biggest thing it's going to impact the most people, and i would expect 5 to maybe 10 million people without power this time tomorrow. power outages will start especially this afternoon as winds crank up, and then the power outages will go throughout hundreds of thousands of people during the early evening hours as the storm moves inland. we could see winds gusting 80 to 90 even in the metropolitan areas like new york city. but definitely through the coastal spots. winds right now, they're starting to pick up. now we're heading up towards 40-mile-per-hour gusts all the way from the jersey shore to long island including new york city. and as far as areas to the south, it's not a walk in the park either. you saw those pictures from ocean city, maryland. and a lot of heavy rain headed for d.c. to baltimore. if there's going to be major river flooding, it would most likely be in the maryland/delaware area. and the key to the damage on the coast, the high tide cycles. we're about two hours away from the next high side cycle. the last one last night was bad with minor damage. this one will see major damage.
4:05 am
and that's, again, approaching in two hours from now. we'll have those daylight pictures for you. but the really devastating one will be later on tonight, if new york city subways are going to flood, it would be at 8:00 to 9:00 this evening as the storm moves inland, the storm surge along with high tide, that's going to be the troublesome spot from connecticut, new york city all the way down the jersey shore. an historical storm. so rare for this time of year. and unfortunately, up through election day, lots of people still won't even have power back on. >> thank you so much, bill. >> thank you, bill. >> it is rare for this time of year. we had a hurricane this time last year. we've heard it's rare. two years in a row, not so rare. we'll let people debate the climate. i will tell you just for purposes of this storm, you look at the path of this storm, and of course we realized this growing up in florida, i've been through tons of hurricanes, it's always the right side of the storm where you get the storm surges. this thing is coming into new jersey. the huge storm surges, as bill said, man, they are going to be coming in on manhattan.
4:06 am
they're going to be going up the connecticut coastline. they're going to be hitting all along long island. that could be the really devastating part of this storm. it couldn't come in at a worse place for new york city. it couldn't come in at a worse place for lower manhattan because, again, the highest winds, the greatest damage, the largest storm surges are always to the right of the eye. that's going to be new york city. that's going to be up long island sound. that's going to be throughout connecticut. new york and the connecticut coastline, they are going to get hammered. >> pounded. >> hammered. >> and then, obviously, we're trying to cover an election. and people are trying to take part in a presidential election. and this is going to have an impact one way or another. it could impact early voting also if there's a major natural disaster, and all indications are we're looking potentially at that. this could put the president in
4:07 am
the national spotlight. >> right. >> 24/7. >> it certainly -- and, of course, it hasn't hit shore, and people get angry when you start talking about the realities of politics. >> that is the reality of politics. >> whoever is the president or whoever is the governor is put into position to look for authoritative. if they handle it well, they get the rewards. >> or not. if they don't. >> if they mess it up, of course, they get punished. we don't know how this is going to break, chuck todd. we do know one thing, though. on saturday when mika and i were up in new hampshire to interview the president, everybody up there was excited about the joint appearance in orlando with bill clinton today. the president obviously behind in the latest i-4 corridor poll. we hear now that that event has been canceled, is that correct? >> correct. yes. it's been canceled. they just announced that this morning. jay carney gave a statement to the pool. they canceled it. the president's coming back up here. the question is, does the event
4:08 am
itself still go on with bill clinton? right now, for instance, they were still going to have clinton and biden events in youngstown this was supposed to be the second stop. there was a virginia stop that was going to be today, but this was sort of odd last night when the president left. and you wondered, well, what's he going to say this morning at this campaign event? you know, is he really going to go off on a romnesia riff? you know, so this doesn't surprise me at all. >> hey, chuck, a lot happening this past weekend. >> yeah. >> i don't even know where to start. the one thing, though, that you and i can probably agree on here is, it's hard to pick up trends. you see an ohio newspaper poll, oh, wait, okay. >> yeah. >> mitt romney is now even with the president. boy, the president's in a lot of trouble. and an hour later, "the washington post"/abc poll, wait, romney's down four. an hour later "the des moines
4:09 am
register" decides they're going to endorse a republican since nixon. a minnesota poll that shows romney within the margin of error in minnesota. there are no trend lines here, are there? >> well, i would say this. there's no trend lines in the battleground states. i think that that is a fair assessment. i think what we see in minnesota and i think i saw -- we're seeing examples of it even in bluer states, if you will, and in some redder states is it's clear mitt romney's going to outperform john mccain in a lot of states he's going to lose and a lot of states he's going to win. i think it's fair to say that the idea of the split is very possible. that mitt romney's -- sort of the sheer momentum. and there is sort of two forces at work here in this campaign, right? the obama campaign metrics the census and demographics versus joe, i think what you and i feel like we see going on in this campaign the last two weeks,
4:10 am
which is the good old-fashioned, well, which candidate is on his message at the right time, seems to be peaking, and that's romney, right? so the two different forces are converging. and i think in the battleground states, it's left this muddy picture. but i think that's why you see in a pennsylvania and a minnesota where the campaign itself hasn't interacted very much where romney's gotten more benefit of the doubt. so there is some consistency in the nonbattleground states. >> and when you talk about split, you're talking about mitt romney winning the popular vote and the president possibly winning the electoral college. >> that's right, yes. >> mike barnicle? >> i'm just wondering, you know, which campaign at this stage, chuck, do you think has the better ground game? because you just get the distinct impression with the storm in certain sections of the country, turnout is going to be key. which campaign has the best ground game to get their vote out? >> well, i think that the campaign that is more aware of who their voters are, where they live, when they voted, all of
4:11 am
those things, i think it's the obama campaign. the amount of time and energy they've put into this over the last five years. this is not to take anything away from romney and the republicans. they have a good organization. it's just not as good as the obama campaign. it's better than mccain's was. it's better than bush's. it is good. it is good enough to win. on the republican side. but the obama folks are better. but, you know, there is -- i do think we do know a couple of things about the next eight days. and joe, i'm curious if you agree with this, which is we know there's not eight campaign days left anymore. we don't know how many there are, but we know there are not eight. we're down to four or five. that's number one. number two, i think we know that new hampshire and virginia, two very close battleground states, are not going to see -- are not going to be seeing any traditional last-minute campaigning between now and the election. there's going to be power outages -- there's going to be all sorts of reasons you cannot bring the motorcades to these
4:12 am
states. so that has an impact. it's going to drive everybody to the midwest whether they like it or not. like that's where i think the last five days -- maybe this is inevitable anyway, but the last four or five days, these guys are all just going to be crisscrossing those three midwestern states. >> i think you're right. i can tell you -- i always try to put myself in the position of the candidates, how i'd be feeling. and harold, i'll ask you the same thing. if i were the president right now or let's just say -- forget the president. if i were the president's campaign manager, i'd be looking at this, harold, as an opportunity because mitt romney does have momentum. these states are tightening. it looks like things are breaking -- this was a great weekend. and i will say it. other than the virginia poll, this was a great weekend for mitt romney. this breaks that momentum. the only reason i would say that is because if i were mitt romney and i felt like i was getting the momentum from the ohio poll, the endorsement, i would be in
4:13 am
my campaign office throwing things against the wall and screaming because you never want that momentum to be broken up. when things are breaking your way, you don't want a new dynamic in the race. and this really does blow apart the race. we don't know -- it doesn't mean a vote will be changed. i'm just talking about how politicians think. do you agree? >> i fully agree with you. look, if i were advising president obama, i think what chuck has said about where the race has to go is to the midwest, i'd have him not at big rallies. i'd have him a la bill clinton style, i'd have him in a jacket, a pair of jeans or khakis and a shirt, finding my way to lunch spots and lunch spots reminding people that the middle class is what this election is about. i'm going to stand up for you. the difference between mitt romney and me is this. he's only going to represent the wealthiest. if i'm mitt romney, i'd do the exact same thing. there's nothing wrong with doing the big rallies, but i'd find
4:14 am
myself with everyday hardworking people doing things that people do. and make sure you point out that we continue to pray for them, we're going to do everything we can, federal assets are there for the states that have been hid hartest by what we believe will be the biggest storm to hit the east coast in sometime. >> you can't have campaign events in the middle of a massive storm of the century. there's only so much in the next eight days that he can do. >> i think the most important person in this election now is not the candidates, it's david plouffe, senior white house adviser, ran the president's campaign last time. brilliant ad understanding the intersection between the campaign and the government. lots of control over both. and obviously, what's central to the decision to say the president shouldn't do this event in florida, should come back to washington. i think you'll see plouffe doing a couple things. one, the symbolism of the office, making sure they don't mess up. the biggest thing is if the federal government doesn't respond to the storm in the right way. if they get that piece correct, then it's the symbolism.
4:15 am
how many days does he have to be fema commander in chief? to harold's point, when he goes back, what kind of events can he do? >> right. >> chuck, obviously, these hurricanes are tricky politics. again, it sounds awfully cynical. people's lives are on the line. but the next four years, where this country goes, depends how the president handles it, how mitt romney handles it. we certainly saw september 15th, 2008, began a process that led to barack obama being elected. you go back to '92. we're florida guys. go back to '92. we all remember 41 was seen as mishandling. >> spokesperson for dade county, i'll never forget her, she gets on, where's the cavalry? it was like boy, there was your headline for the entire country. where's the cavalry? it was a rough moment. >> you talk about another bush, 2005, george w. bush, if you talk to people that worked for president bush, they will tell you the low point of their eight
4:16 am
years, it wasn't iraq. it wasn't wmds. it wasn't the horror of all of that. it was katrina and being caught sleeping and feeling like they had abandoned people in new orleans. it impacted them in a deeply personal way. these -- obviously people's lives are on the line here, too, but it also -- it's a sign of leadership. >> there is no pollster in the world who can get at the feelings, the emotions, of someone, a family, who has lost power for three or four days. what does that do to this election? that kind of emotional wild card. there's no way of telling what people feel or who they get angry at. >> one thing the president benefits from, i think, because again, i don't think the white house is going to mess this up. i bet you $10,000, they've got in the tri-state area, three extraordinarily aggressive
4:17 am
governors, two democrats, one republican. but chris christie -- >> good way of putting it. >> cuomo and malloy is going to be very aggressive and work very close with the president and the white house because they are concerned about the people, not just the politics of it, they're concerned about the people. but those are highly competent, very aggressive governors. >> chuck, explain about this campaign shifting to the midwest in the final stretch because obviously north carolina's now out of play. virginia's out of play. new hampshire's out of play. unless, of course, the president goes to visit damaged areas in virginia. >> he could do disaster -- yes, there is some of that. >> expect that, by the way. >> right. but i mean, already look at how romney's reacted just with his scheduling, right? they canceled virginia and went to ohio. you know, there's really no other places to go. he did a florida event. i would expect that he pops back down to florida one more time. but i think the president has something to do right now. the president has a government
4:18 am
to run, a fema to direct, all of these things. i think the trickier politics here is for mitt romney. >> yeah. >> what's appropriate? what do you do? by the way, his boston headquarters might be in the line of this thing. there is that aspect to this, which is not worth -- which is certainly worth bringing up. but i think the trickier politics, when you're the -- you've got nothing to do, mitt romney has no official role in this whatsoever. >> that's a tough one. >> and that is a tough -- you know, i don't have a good idea of what is it that he should do, what's appropriate, what's not appropriate. but i think he's in oddly a tougher spot because the president's got a job to do. >> let's run through a couple quick developments over the weekend. really quickly, "the des moines register" endorsement, were you shocked by that? >> i was shocked by that. clearly, you can't help but
4:19 am
wonder, did some sort of -- the kerfuffle between the president not sitting down with them, not doing -- you can't help but wonder if something's there, but boy, look. i don't know if any newspaper endorsement swings anybody, but you want the biggest newspaper in a small state, i can tell you that much. >> and that endorsement does matter, right? >> well, here's what it is. it's symbolic, right? it stings. iowa is -- iowa is the launching pad for obama. so it see it to come apart there, symbolically is not something that i think the obama campaign has enjoyed. and i think romney loves it. >> final question, the ohio newspaper poll, they've got it split. does that -- what do you know about that poll? how much weight -- >> it's a great poll. the university of cincinnati, i think it's a terrific poll. it's an older poll. most of it was conducted before the third debate, so keep that in mind. and that is, from what i understand, the period of time in both campaigns that ohio
4:20 am
tightened to the closest that it was. i've even gotten the obama campaign to admit that. >> we want to go to hartford, connecticut, now we have standing by the democratic governor, governor danell malloy. governor malloy, connecticut's certainly going to be hit hard. is your state ready? >> well, i think we're ready. if preparation is warning people, evacuating people and having assets in place for recovery, we're ready. we're better prepared for this storm than we've ever been prepared in our history. but we're not exactly sure what's going to be thrown at us, although our worst-case scenario right now is on script. and that is that this afternoon's tide will be as bad as the perfect storm '92/irene of last year. and that tonight's tide, along with the entirety of long island sound on our side, could be catastrophic. that's what we're planning for. we hope it's avoided somehow and some way, but if you look at all the surge maps, it's connecticut that will be most adversely impacted.
4:21 am
>> yeah. and you know what? i covered connecticut for quite some time many years ago. and there are neighborhoods on the coastline that get flooded during a thunderstorm. >> yeah. >> how are you going to keep homes from getting decimated up and down the connecticut coastline if. >> listen, we've ordered evacuations or suggested ev evacuations that affect 362,000 people, one out of every ten residents of the state of connecticut. but it's the small towns and it's the big cities. it's new haven, bridge fort, stamford, norwalk, fairfield, they're all going to be adversely impacted. we're waiting to see. if this hits 11 feet with waves on top of 11 feet, we're talking about dike systems being overrun. that's the severity if we get to 11 feet. >> so you've actually, as governor, this is going to be the second hurricane -- >> really. >> it's the second hurricane, joe, but remember, don't leave out that snowstorm in october that knocked us out for 11 days. >> i was going to say, the second -- no, i won't. trust me, baby, i won't leave
4:22 am
out that snowstorm. that snowstorm -- you know, you had the hurricane. a snowstorm that took power out for a week. but this actually, this event actually looks more dangerous than both of those. >> this looks awful. >> it does. the implications for damage and loss of life if people aren't paying attention goes well beyond anything that we've ever expected. listen, we're talking about a category 4 event in our state now. we haven't had anything north of a category 1. we've evacuated previously, according to a category 2, this is far wider and quite frankly we're worried about the wind forcing more water down long island sound than it has ever held before. >> obviously a lot of reasons to be worried. good luck, governor. we'll be thinking about you tonight, tomorrow and everybody in connecticut. we appreciate you being here. chuck, stay with us if you can. and when we come back, we're going to be talking to economist
4:23 am
dr. jeffrey sachs about these bizarre weather patterns in october. also ahead, republican governor of virginia, bob mcdonnell. we're going to keep monitoring the latest on the hurricane. keep it right here on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] free windows 8 training from your son. can you help me with something? nope! good talk. [ male announcer ] or free windows 8 training when you buy a computer at staples. another way staples makes it easier to upgrade.
4:24 am
4:25 am
4:26 am
welcome back to "morning joe." >> look who's here. >> the director of the earth institute at columbia university, economist dr. jeffrey sachs. >> hi, dr. sachs. serious times. >> second hurricane in a year in the northeast. that doesn't happen often, does it? >> it's pretty eerie and frightening out there right now. obviously we've had a lot of strange weather. i've asked my hurricanologist at the earth institute what's going on. is this climate change? they say don't go there now. we don't know. this is just an event. >> but it's a massive event. >> you never know. >> yeah. >> there are trends that happen.
4:27 am
and hurricanes go -- i remember in 2005, people were predicting, okay, because of global warming, we're going to have massive hurricanes every year. we went out and bought a generator in florida. and let me tell you something. you want insurance against another hurricane coming? buy a large generator. >> there you go. that will do it. >> that stops them in their tracks. you don't know what's going on. we do have a lot of things happening at the same time here. >> what we do know is we do know there's a lot of climate change even if we don't know whether this monster is one example of that. >> right. >> it's dramatic. i was in asia this past week. they were celebrating their massive floods in bangkok. there were tens of thousands of people killed a couple of years ago in myanmar in massive floods. in other words, everybody senses, americans sense all over the country, things are changing massively and frighteningly, whether this storm is part of
4:28 am
that or not, we're just hunkering down right now to try to avoid the worst of this one. >> chuck, isn't it fascinating that back in 2004, 2005, 2006 -- >> but joe -- >> -- politicians were talking about climate change. they just aren't talking about it this year. >> not a word. >> you and i grew up in florida. do you ever remember in your lifetime a hurricane season that has gone to the letter "s"? we have named a storm to the letter "s." it was -- you know, it used to be, look, our grocery store used to do the paper bags, and they'd tell you the names of the storms. as a kid, you were, like, curious. what are the names going to be this year and all this stuff. and you figured, well, you always got -- you got to "h," "i," sometimes "j." you remember gloria was a late storm. >> irene. >> that was "g." we got to "s." we're regularly now getting -- you know, dr. sachs, it has been, i want to say, what, 4 of
4:29 am
the last 5 that it feels like named storms in the atlantic went way past that sort of the middle barrier of the alphabet. and that used to not be the case. >> chuck and i are used to growing up in florida. and also the storms are coming earlier. they're coming in july, in august. >> andrew was august was "a." first named storm of the year. >> yeah. >> look, we know that this year we had, on other counts, the most extreme weather that we've ever had. we had the warmest 12 months in american history. we had the warmest single month in american history. we had the worst drought in modern american history over the midwest. we destroyed a lot of our crops. we know that things are changing massively. and we know, although the candidates don't want to talk about and a lot of people still deny it, we know that we're doing a lot of that change. it's pretty amazing. we had the debates. it didn't come up one time. >> why? >> one word. >> why? because the candidates are too scared of the oil companies. they're too scared of the coal
4:30 am
companies. they're too scared of the natural gas companies. they don't want to say a word. that's it. it's simple. they won't talk about climate change. neither of them. the president uses a code word now, which is future energy. he won't say the word "climate." the other -- i don't know what he believes, i don't know what mitt romney believes, but neither of them say a word about it right now. their advisers tell them, don't go there. but where's our country going? it's pretty weird. >> what other issues are they not talking about that you want these presidential candidates to talk about? >> well, everything is code words, of course. and the most common code word in america is middle class, middle class. no one says poverty. no one says the poor. we never have government for the poor because oh, now, that, you know, who's that for? what does that mean? does that mean taxes, transfers? whatever. but we've got a lot of poor people in this country who are doing a lot worse.
4:31 am
we have more than 2 million people incarcerated in this country. they won't go to these issues. >> you know, and obviously, your issue and my issue, we talked about the debt for a very long time, dr. sachs. you were talking about the president's interview with us. you were surprised by some of the things he told us. >> look, the big challenge for the president is to look different than the last four years. i think his announcement in his interview is absolutely right. if he can get a grand bargain on the big-budget issues, deficit reduction, and i think he'd love to move on to the environment. one of the big failures of his first term was cap and trade. the vote on that which really hurt democrats is something that has made them gunshy about talking about that issue, but i think there's no doubt if the president wins and he gets a budget deal, he will move to immigration and energy including trying to deal with climate change. that is in some ways the toughest issue because house republicans are willing to raise taxes in the end, i think, they're not willing to deal with
4:32 am
this. >> dr. sachs, stay with us. chuck, thank you. we'll see you on "the daily rundown" at 9:00. up next, meteorologist bill karins with the latest on sandy's track as the storm's outer bands begin to come ashore. we'll be right back.
4:33 am
email marketing from constant contact reaches people in a place they're checking every day -- their inbox. and it gives you the tools to create custom emails that drive business. it's just one of the ways constant contact can help you grow your small business. sign up for your free trial today at constantcontact.com/try.
4:34 am
4:35 am
4:36 am
welcome back to "morning joe." it's 7:35 here on the east coast. if you're just waking up, we're following the path of hurricane sandy. let's go right upstairs to bill karins for the latest. hey, bill. >> good morning. we're starting to watch the worst of the weather now moving further inland. for the first time, washington, d.c., and the baltimore areas are starting to pick up really heavy rainfall rates. that's going to continue for a couple hours. your biggest concerns, i believe, are around d.c., baltimore and delmarva region. you could get up to ten inches of rain. flash flooding an issue throughout the day today. the leaves falling, the drains are going to clog. that's your biggest concern. you see those bright yellows and reds from baltimore to d.c. through the heart of maryland and eastern virginia. that rainfall is going to stay with you through much of the storm. look at the projected totals. the reds, the darker shades of
4:37 am
purple and then the lighter purple, that's where we could see seven to ten inches of rain. notice the northern half of the storm, new york city, hartford, albany, boston, you're going to have rain, but it's not even going to be a quarter of what they're going to see further to the south. that's the issue with the rain. the winds are really starting to pick up now. look at belmar on the jersey coast. that's the highest gust you've had at 43. so winds are not just picking up, but they're staying high. and this is as the storm gets closer, we're going to continue watching the winds peaking. we have high wind warnings throughout the entire region. that's what you'd expect when you have a hurricane that's going to make landfall anyways. specifically the gusts around 60 to 80 miles per hour. those high gusts, where they come on shore later tonight, is where the most wind damage will be done. the most tree damage will be done. and, of course, that's where the most widespread power outages will be. let me try to talk about that. the forecast path shifted ever so slightly to the south at 5:00 a.m. this morning. the next update will be at 11:00. it shouldn't change much after this, but we're looking at that landfall somewhere northern
4:38 am
delaware, southern jersey. and that's where the core of the strongest winds are with this storm system. and if it maintains like that, that's where the worst will be. the orange color, that's tropical storm-force winds. you could lose power. if you get in that red shade in the darker red, that's where you could see hurricane-strength gusts. and again, at 8:00 p.m. this evening at landfall, we could see those higher gusts from long island all through the jersey shore. and then notice all the way back down in through areas, all of the chesapeake's going to have strong, gusty winds. and then that storm will weaken. once again, willie, the high tide cycle is just about to peak right now this morning. 12 hours from now later tonight, it will be much worse. that will be the worst damage. and then power outages, a lot of people in this region won't have power by midnight tonight. >> so the worst of it sometime this evening around 8:00. but before then, a ton of rain down in the washington area. bill, we'll be checking in with you all morning on this. thanks so much. still ahead here, joe and mika's interview with obama senior adviser valerie jarrett. plus virginia governor bob
4:39 am
mcdonnell joins us. keep it on "morning joe." those little things still get you. for you, life's about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph,
4:40 am
like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial.
4:41 am
4:42 am
introducing the new droid razr maxx hd by motorola. now more than ever droid does. welcome back to "morning joe." 7:42 on the east coast. we're going to go to joe and mika on the "today" show with savannah in just a couple minutes or a minute or so. dr. sachs, as you look now eight days out, two different questions, i guess, what do you hope the race will turn on, and what do you think it will actually turn on? >> well, this is the cliff-hanger of cliff-hangers. so i think even the next few days, the storm, what the president does in leadership and helping the country get out of this mess actually can play a role. we're down to the absolute wire.
4:43 am
there's no question about it. >> harold, this obviously isn't a story about politics. this is about real things happening to real people over the next couple of days. but does it give the president a moment to appear presidential with a week before an election? >> not only does it give him a chance to look presidential, and i think it's even harder for mitt romney to campaign. and if you're mitt romney, you have to support the president. democrats, republicans alike have to do everything they can to ensure that assets are on the ground up and down the east coast for those who will be hit hardest and who will suffer the most. campaigning takes a back seat. >> do you think, mark, that mitt romney learned from his quick response perhaps too-quick response to what happened in benghazi? >> i think they'll be very cautious. they like where they are, so i think they'll be fine letting the president do what he needs to do and focusing on the battleground states that aren't affected by the storm. >> so we're going to go now to the "today" show. joe and mika being interviewed by -- oh, keep it going here. this is my first simulcast. i don't know how this works exactly. we're going to send it over to
4:44 am
savannah with joe and mika. do we do that now, alex? let's just do it now. go ahead to the "today" show. >> back here to washington to monitor things. and so you talk to both campaigns, and frankly, eight days out, they don't like unknowns. this is a giant unknown. welcome to the october surprise. >> yeah. it is that. chuck todd, thank you. joe scarborough and mika brzezinski are the host of "morning joe." good morning to you. >> morning. >> speaking of the unnoticeable, i'll ask you the unanswerable question. if the storm locks the race in place, joe, who does that benefit? >> it's hard to say. one thing we do know, bill clinton is going to be very nervous about having to fill all that space by himself today without barack obama. >> he'll be fine. >> no, he's going to do great in orlando, obviously, but mitt romney had momentum. you look at ohio, an ohio poll that came out had them deadlocked. the minnesota poll, three. he gets the endorsement from "the des moines register," first endorsement since nixon got it in '72. in that state, that's a big deal. this was mitt romney's best
4:45 am
weekend, and it stops. the momentum stops. you don't know how it freezes the race, but you certainly know that it's a new dynamic into the race, and it changes everything with a week to go. >> it does indeed. the question is how -- a lot of people have different theories on which candidate it benefits. >> right. >> it's a moment for the president to be commander in chief, to be presidential. but there are pitfalls with that. >> it sure is. there are pitfalls because something could go wrong, and people could maybe perhaps the president isn't doing enough. but if this storm is as big as it portends to be and all indications are that it's going to be massive, expect command centers up and down the east coast and the president to be very visible at all of them, telling people about the federal dollars that are on the way. and that will be advantage obama. >> the president's going to have the opportunity to go to virginia not as a politician but as a president. somebody there to help out. somebody there to comfort people. the two bushes, bush 41 and bush 43, had disasters in their
4:46 am
handling of hurricanes. george h.w. bush with andrew, which damaged, his political career was damaged will. and of course george w. bush in 2005 with katrina. many people in the bush white house say that was the low point of his presidency. a lot of dangers, also a lot of political opportunities. >> beyond the optics, let's get practical. early voting is happening in a lot of these states. we've already seen maryland cancel early voting for the day. how much of an impact is that, especial especially that the obama campaign is depending on very much? >> they are talking about it, counting on it, absolutely right, but it also leaves mitt romney back to the optics in an awkward situation. because anything he does might look so blatantly political or almost needy because he's just not in the equation when the country's under siege from a massive storm. >> what can a challenger do? >> what can he do? >> the president of the united states yesterday went to the fema command center which, by the way, was it cynical? maybe the people running the campaign were saying we need to
4:47 am
get him there, but the president was doing what presidents do. what does mitt romney do? that's the big question mark. >> real quickly, this close to the election, does it matter if they've got to cancel these rallies? and what about their ads? if you're wall-to-wall coverage in some of these markets, the television ads aren't airing, right? >> no, they're not airing. you look at the states on the east coast that will be the most impacted, virginia and new hampshire. those states really matter. obviously, pennsylvania matters as well because mitt romney's people believe they're closing that race. but it does change everything. the key here is to not look too political. if you do that, that cob a backlash not only the states along the coastline that are impacted by this but across the entire country. it's messy out there not only weatherwise but also politically. >> you two actually interviewed the president over the weekend. you looked him in the eye. do you think he's feeling the heat, mika? >> i do. and i think that he's also enjoying the game. we were out there on the rope line watching him interact with people and getting his message out there and responding to some
4:48 am
of the latest kerfuffles in the media, and he seemed right in there, completely engaged. but the campaign, how could they not be nervous? look at the polls. look at them. >> you talk to the romney people. you talk to the obama people. neither one of them have any idea how this is going to turn out. they're both cautiously optimistic. >> it's crazy. >> but you can look in their eyes and also know they're nervous. this is not a slam dunk. >> both acting confident, we'll know what happens in eight days. joe and mika, thank you. >> thank you, savannah. >> all right. that's joe and mika on the "today" show. when we come back here on "morning joe," we'll switch gears and bring in our friend roger bennett. >> boy, that's switching gears. [ male announcer ] with 160 more miles per tank, the distances aren't getting shorter. ♪ the trucks are going farther. the new 2013 ram 1500. ♪
4:49 am
with the best-in-class fuel economy. engineered to move heaven and earth. ♪ guts. glory. ram. ♪ try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase.
4:50 am
4:51 am
4:52 am
joining us now, espn soccer analyst, roger bennett. roger, good morning, sir. >> willie, what a weekend. >> it's been a wild weekend, i'm told. >> i know you were the big synchronized swimming fan in the olympics. soccer is a big sport. it was a big weekend, barnicle. >> what happened in some of these soccer matches? >> it was a clash with two liverpool teams. going head to head. it's like cain versus abel. big story, luis suarez, looks like anne hathaway who plays
4:53 am
like reggie miller said to have dived a lot this season. he created chaos in the everton area. scored in the 40th minute and then everton's coach by celebrating with a fake dive right in his face. you don't get a more silent move. he scored again six minutes later. this game looked like it was going to be a blowout. everton may not have money, but they do have teamwork and tenacity. >> nice. >> american international tim howard in goal there. they dragged themselves back into this game. this was the equalizer. steven a. smith, 2-2. both teams had chances to win it in the second half. i have to say, watching this game is so emotional from a liverpool potential, it's like eating popeye's. luis suarez thought he won it in the final seconds. it was incorrectly called off-sides. the only winner on this day was
4:54 am
karma. >> incorrectly called? >> yeah, he was actually not off-sides. this gentleman, is such a loathsome twit that even the referees line up against him. >> he does look like anne hathaway. >> he has far more than the regulation number of teeth. another big game this weekend, chelsea versus manchester united. it was a bare-knuckle fight between those two heavyweights that you both know so well. willie. >> yes. >> manchester united took a 2-0 lead in this one thanks to their dutch-scorie ining maestro, robn persie. a goal even barnicle could love for the twinkle toes of happy feet juan mata. look at this one, talented little spaniard. corner. >> wow! >> they dragged themselves back into the game. games like this, though, they
4:55 am
should be won on moments of magic. this one, unfortunately, wasn't. it was the referee who took control. he gave away two awful -- this one in particular -- this was a red card for diving. it is fernando. the doe-eyed player, barnicle, it's like giving bambi a red card. >> taken out of the game? >> at the end of regulation. manchester united still a point for an off-side goal in the final minute. chelsea lose for the first time this season. i felt sorry for chelsea, an emotion i've not felt before, like feeling sorry for big tobacco, willie. >> some of us still do. some of us still do. roger bennett, the man, the myth, the legend. >> the root canal. >> men in blazers. coming up, governor bob mcconnell talks about his state's preparation as the hurricane bears down.
4:56 am
we'll update the storm's path with bill karins right after this. i'm a conservative investor. i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities.
4:57 am
india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials. low cost. every dollar counts. ishares. income. dividends. bonds. i like bonds. ishares. commodities. diversification. choices. my own ideas. ishares. i want to use the same stuff the big guys use. ishares. 9 out of 10 large, professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. introducing the ishares core, etfs for the heart of your portfolio. tax efficient and low cost building blocks to help you keep more of what you earn. call your advisor. visit ishares.com. ishares. yeah, ishares. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing.
4:58 am
4:59 am
good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. as you take a live look at new york city. welcome back to "morning joe." back with us on set, we have mike barnicle and mark halperin. we're going to begin this hour
5:00 am
with hurricane sandy. flights are canceled. subways are shut down. and millions of people are bracing right now for an historic storm up and down the eastern seaboard. high winds and rains are beginning to hit places like ocean city, maryland. hurricane sandy will drench areas from north carolina to new england, and behind the initial impact, what could be a devastating storm surge. let's go straight to meteorologist bill karins here with the very latest on the hurricane. bill. >> well, the most damage that's occurred is happening right now with this storm. we are at the morning high tide cycle. it is approaching all the way from virginia northwards up the coastline into southern new england. some of the pictures are pretty incredible that are coming in, how high the water levels are in areas all the way down into virginia and as far north -- i've heard reports of water in the streets in atlantic city, new jersey. this is just an indication of how strong the storm is. this high tide cycle we're having is bad. the one later tonight at about 8:00 p.m. approximately, that's the one that could possibly be
5:01 am
historic because that's when the storm will be moving inland. the national hurricane center just gave their new update, still at 85-mile-per-hour winds. look at this. it's made the turn. the historically rare turn towards the northeast. the westerly component, it's almost never happened before with a hurricane this late in the season or, for that matter, almost never. as far as the rain goes, this is intense rain right now. do not be on the roads around washington, d.c., baltimore, all the way up to philadelphia. these are about two inches of rain an hour. visibility will be extremely poor. and the water will be quickly piling up in any poor drainage areas. that's from northern virginia all the way through maryland into southern portions of pa. that's by far the worst weather you've seen with this storm. that heavy rain will lead to flooding all day long. as the storm moves inland late this afternoon, this evening, that's when part two of the story starts. that will be the power outages. at the end of this whole event, i think the legacy of this storm will be the power outages. they'll likely be in the millions as we go throughout this time tomorrow morning.
5:02 am
we will lose power dramatically throughout the mid-atlantic and southern new england as we go throughout the evening hours with that landfall. look at that, the highest gust we've had yet in new york city. 51-mile-per-hour gusts at jfk airport. that's enough even to knock down some power lines on some weaker trees. the winds are already bee binning to crank up. and as far as the landfall forecast, again, sometime around 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. this evening, cohen siding with the heavy storm surge there to the north of the center. we'll keep you updated here on "morning joe" and of course on msnbc. back to you, joe and mika. >> the storm surges are going to be absolutely monstrous. "new york post," closed. the "daily news" talks about "shut." "the new york times'" lead story, the northeast bracing for the storms. "the wall street journal" talking about the monster storm that's targeting the northeast. and on the front of the "usa
5:03 am
today" also talking about millions bracing for the worst of monster storm sandy. and then "the financial times" talking about how sandy adds to election tension. and it does. that was a big question yesterday in the political world. >> yeah. >> how this was going to impact the race. >> it could impact it in a number of different ways. it really depends on what happens. all indications are this is going to be huge. there could be a lot of different situations in which homes are decimated up and down the eastern seaboard. >> yeah. up and down the eastern seaboard. again, we'll see what happens. it certainly freezes one of the closest presidential races that we've had in quite some time, just freezes it in its tracks. but let's look, a lot of things happened over the weekend. >> yeah. >> a lot of polls. some significant endorsements. let's take a look at some of that. >> we'll stay on the weather as well. to politics, though, with eight days left until the election as the storm swirls over it, a number of new swing state polls
5:04 am
give a hint or perhaps add confusion to where exactly the race stands. in florida, mitt romney leads president obama. according to real clear politics average of polls, when you break it down, it's central florida where the president needs a boost. along the interstate 4 corridor where the state's races are off often decided, likely voters are siding with mitt romney, 51%-45%. >> over the past several years when i've been critical of republicans for being too extreme at least in their tone or temperament, i've always said elections are won in the suburbs of philadelphia and the i-4 corridor. most florida insiders now thinking that florida's firmly in mitt romney's camp. the i-4 corridor, a six-point gap. and mark halperin, that's a fairly significant gap for an area that bill clinton carried in '96 and that president obama carried. >> that poll's accurate, romney will win florida for sure. if he's going to carry i-4 by that big a margin.
5:05 am
and most indications are that he's going to win the state. however, you have to point out, the obama campaign says they're competing in all the battleground states, and they are. the president's one event today is in florida with bill clinton, 10:00 this morning. >> going to be right in the middle of the i-4 corridor. >> right in the middle. they're competing there. they're not giving up. they're using their most precious asset today, one obama visit with bill clinton to go to florida. so they're not giving up, but there's no question romney has an edge there right now. >> yeah, you usually have, mika, north florida against south florida and central florida being what makes a difference. the south florida poll out of miami-dade shows the president -- >> largest county in the state, 52%-43%. >> now, that's not a surprise. i will tell you, this next poll, though, is a surprise. >> all right. let's go to virginia. the latest "washington post" poll has president obama clinging to a four-point lead. last month it was an eight-point
5:06 am
difference. shall we go to ohio? >> i want to talk about virginia for a second. >> okay. >> mark, republicans got some good news in the form of an ohio poll we're about to put up. but he couldn't really enjoy that because this "washington post" poll showing a four-point lead in virginia. that's just as bad news for republicans as the ohio poll was good news. >> i thought for a while that people were overly assuming virginia and thinking well, romney couldn't win ohio. in some ways ohio is a better state for him. virginia has all the groups in big numbers that are the president's base. younger voters, hispanics, african-americans, suburban women. i think the romney campaign might have to start thinking about a path with ohio but without virginia, which is doable. but it does involve them winning another big state or two to make up for that loss. >> that's what i was going to ask you. as you look at that electoral map, we've always said he's got to win ohio, it's going to decide it. but if he does not get virginia, where else does he look? >> maybe iowa, wisconsin,
5:07 am
certainly colorado, maybe minnesota or pennsylvania, both of which are not in play, that the obama campaign's playing defense there. >> so what did you think of the president? >> it was fascinating. we had a fascinating weekend. we went to new hampshire to the president's campaign event. we went to a school in nashua, new hampshire, a state whose four electoral votes could be critical in deciding the country's next president. >> the crowd was very excited. >> it was. >> to see the president. the president seemed to be in really good form. >> yeah. >> seemed to be enjoying himself there. >> yes, he did. >> valerie came along. >> we spoke to valerie. we'll show that later. we had a couple questions for him. we interviewed the president backstage at the school's corridor, and we asked him about the ongoing controversy surrounding the attack on the u.s. compound in benghazi. >> why has it been so easy for critics to say the administration does not have its story straight on benghazi? >> well, look. the fact of the matter is is that this is a tragedy. there's all kinds of legitimate
5:08 am
questions to ask because any time a u.s. ambassador and three other americans who are serving our country get killed, you know, we've got to figure out what happened. and fix it. and most poshimportantly, we've to bring those folks who carried that out to justice. that's exactly what we're going to do. but i do take offense, as i've said during one of the debates, with some suggestion that, you know, in any way we haven't tried to make sure that the american people knew, as information was coming in, what we believed happened. >> was it the intel community giving you bad information early on? the stories keep changing. >> that's what we're going to find out from the investigation. the truth is is that, you know, across the board, when this happened, my number one priority was secure americans, figure out what happened, bring those folks to justice. we are in the process of doing that right now.
5:09 am
congress has been getting the flow of information continuously from day one. and what my attitude on this is, is if we find out that there was a big breakdown and somebody didn't do their job, they'll be held accountable. ultimately, as commander in chief, i'm responsible, and i don't shy away from that responsibility. my number one responsibility is to go after folks who did this, and we're going to make sure that we get them. i've got a pretty good track record doing that. >> there's a lot more to the interview. we also asked the president about the final days of the race. you can really kind of feel it inside the campaign. it's coming down to the wire. and if it was at all bittersweet knowing this would be his final campaign. >> well, i mean, you get a little nostalgic. i mean, you start thinking about your first -- you know, i was thinking about my first campaign when i was running for state senate. >> right. >> we had, like, four volunteers
5:10 am
around the kitchen table, designing our own flyer, taking it over to kinko's. now i'm not going to be doing this much longer. the nice thing is, though, the energy, the crowds that we've seen makes me feel as if we're running this campaign in the right way. we're ending strong. and i think we're going to do well. >> so let's talk about the next four years and try and get as specific as possible. what is -- how would you define your mandate for the next four years? and i'd like to know the sacrifice that will not be asked of just the 1% but of the 99% as well. >> well, there's no doubt that our first order of business is going to be to get our deficits and debt under control. and the good thing is is that there's a forcing amerimechanis. the bush tax cuts end at the end of the year. we know we've got the sequester rooming that wouldn't be the right way to do things. it's taking a machete to something as opposed to a scalpel. and after the election, i think that both democrats and republicans have to step back and say, you know what? this is something that the country wants to solve.
5:11 am
if i've won, then i believe that's a mandate for doing it in a balanced way. we've already made a trillion dollars worth of cuts. we can do some more cuts. we can look at how we deal with health care costs, in particular, under medicare and medicaid in a serious way, but we are going to also need revenue. if we get that piece done and we kind of settle on the big question, how much government are we going to have, and how are we going to pay for it, then a lot of the other stuff falls into place. >> can you get medicare done? >> i think we can. >> because, you know, republicans demagogue it. democrats demagogue it. everybody's demagogued it through the years. can you go to the republicans and say, guys, women, we've got to do this together. >> well, here's what we can do. look, i'm on record, i think, turning it into a voucher premium support's a bad idea. i do think, though, that anybody realistically looks at it and says, you know, if we're spending 17% of our gdp on health care and every other country is spending 11% and
5:12 am
their outcomes are better, that difference of 6%, that's our deficit and our debt. and so let's find good ideas. now, i stole a whole bunch of ideas from a massachusetts governor that i think over time is going to save us money. the $716 billion that governor romney suggests i stole from medicare actually is money that we are saving in the system and extending the life of medicare. so i think there are ways we can do this in a creative way. but if we get that piece done, then immigration reform, i think, is there to get done. and i think your side is going to need to get it done because you can't continue to alienate the fastest growing segment of the country, and it's the right thing to do. i think that infrastructure, joe, when you were in congress, since when did roads and bridges become democratic issues? those have historically been democrat and republican issues. >> a guy named ike kind of liked
5:13 am
infrastructure, didn't he? >> the thing is is that we've got a whole bunch of deferred maintenance. interest rates are low. contractors are begging for work. putting folks back to work right now as part of an overall package that has also got long-term deficit reduction can jump start the economy at the same time that housing is starting to recover. and the education agenda that i've got is one that, you know, even jeb bush has occasionally complimented because, you know, we have said, you can't just give more money into a system without reforming it, and there's got to be more accountability. so there are a whole range of issues, i think, where we can actually bring the country together with a nonideological agenda. the question's going to be, how do republicans in congress react post-election? because there's going to be a war going on inside that party. it just hasn't broken out.en un to me. >> let's say you win.
5:14 am
boehner is still speaker, and the house either goes democrat or republican by one, you're still in the same situation the next four years you were in the last four years. so what's going to make the difference? we talked about this to you one on one before. what makes the difference over the next four years? what is there for americans to hope and believe that republicans and democrats can work together? >> i truly believe that if we can get the deficit and debt issue solved, which i believe we can get done, you know, in the lame duck or in the immediate aftermath of the lame duck, then that clears a way a lot of the ideological underbrush. and then, you know, now we can start looking at a whole bunch of other issues that, as i said, historically have not been that ideological. let's take an example. you know, republicans say that i've overregulated. now, the truth is i've put up fewer regulations than george bush did. some were significant. obviously, dodd/frank wall street reform is a big example of that.
5:15 am
but i have actually niinitiated whole process to look back at all the old regulations to see, are there ones that don't work? that should be a project republicans are happy to work with me on. because if we're going to streamline government, we should do it smartly. i've said that i want to consolidate a whole bunch of government agencies. we should have one secretary of business instead of nine different departments that are dealing with things like getting loans to sba or helping companies with exports. there should be a one-stop shop. now, the reason we haven't done that is not because of some big ideological difference. it has to do with congress talking a good game about wanting to streamline government but being very protective about not giving up their jurisdiction over various pieces of government. so there are going to be a whole bunch of things i think we can work on. the first thing, though, is let's go ahead and get settled. how big a government? how do we pay for it? if we solve that problem, and i
5:16 am
think we can solve it and we have to solve it, then i think we'll be in a position to make some progress. coming up next, we'll talk to governor bob mcdonnell about the hurricane's impact on virginia. right now, though, he's worried about the weather. as well as the latest swing state polls in old dominion. also, big ideas with big risks. "the atlantic" magazine's james bennett takes us to the people who are putting their reputations on the line in pursuit of their ideas. >> we're putting our reputations on the line just having him on the show. >> you put my reputation on the line every day. we'll continue to monitor the big storm making its way to the east coast. keep it right here on "morning joe." we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] can a car be built around a state of mind? ♪
5:17 am
announcing the all-new 2013 malibu from chevrolet. ♪ with a remarkable new interior featuring the available chevrolet mylink infotainment system. this is where sophisticated styling begins. and where it ends? that's up to you. it's here -- the greatest malibu ever. ♪ when you take a closer look... ...at the best schools in the world... ...you see they all have something very interesting in common. they have teachers... ...with a deeper knowledge of their subjects. as a result, their students achieve at a higher level. let's develop more stars in education. let's invest in our teachers... ...so they can inspire our students. let's solve this.
5:18 am
[ mom ] we already have a tv. would you like to know more about it? yeah, but let me put my wife on speaker. hi! hi. it's led and it has great picture quality. i don't know... it's ultra slim... maybe next year. you could always put it on layaway and pay a little at a time. alright. we'll take it! ah! i love you! hmm! ahem. football. [ male announcer ] shop now. get the hottest brands on your list today... like the lg 55 inch led tv. and put it on layaway now so you have more time to pay. walmart.
5:19 am
5:20 am
a live look at virginia beach as the waves are beginning to crash against the shore. virginia, of course, one of the many states that will be hit hard by hurricane sandy. joining us now from richmond, republican governor of virginia, governor bob mcdonnell. governor, good morning. tell us, is virginia as prepared as can be? >> hi, mika. we are. we're used to storms in virginia. i declared a state of emergency on friday, brought up about 700 members of the national guard, extra state police. we've asked for about 2,000 additional utility workers from other states to come in to help us. had a couple local mandatory evacuations and state and local and federal officials are working well together. fema's on the ground. mika, i think our people are ready. they're doing the smart thing. and what we're asking people to
5:21 am
do right now is today and tomorrow morning will be the worst part of the storm for virginians. stay off the roads. stay inside. know where your emergency shelters are. and be a good neighbor, help one another out. this is a really strange storm, we've got coastal flooding, tropical storm and hurricane-force winds at the coast, eight to ten inches of rain at the coast. and then in southwest virginia, we have blizzard warnings up to a foot or two feet of snow. so it's a very different combination of systems here. but i think our people are ready, mika. >> we talked to connecticut governor danell malloy who told us that the biggest threat to connecticut was the storm surge. what's virginia's biggest threat out of this storm? >> well, it's a little less with the storm surge. i mean, we're going to have levels a little bit below hurricane irene, although that's still pretty dangerous. but our biggest concern is power outages. we're expecting as many as 1 million people without power after the storm passes all up
5:22 am
and down the eastern part and the northern virginia area, maybe more. and so downed power lines, downed trees after sustained rain and winds for two, three days, that's our biggest concern. and that's where most of the fatalities took place in the last storms were downed trees. right now we have no injuries, no fatalities of any significance. we're pretty fortunate, but the worst is to come today and tomorrow morning. >> you know, what we're hearing from the latest weather reports is that this storm is actually gaining in its intensity in the storm surge, that this isn't one of those weather stories that ends up going off out to sea. this looks like it could be massive. what are you hearing from the data that you're bringing in there in virginia? >> we've been briefed this morning, and you're right, mika, the 8:00 national weather service update showed some intensification, 85 miles an hour and may be turning a little bit sooner, meaning more impact south which would affect eastern and northern virginia more.
5:23 am
state governments closed today, federal government is closed today. so all the proper precautions are being taken. we've got terrific law enforcement officers out there doing their good work. but regardless of where the storm actually hits, whether it's delaware or new jersey, it's going to be a classic nor'easter. and that means there's going to be broad effects up and down the atlantic coast and all over every area of virginia from snow to heavy winds, flooding and downed trees. the entire state will be affected. so if people are just smart and vigilant and help one another out, we're going to be okay. >> governor, mark halperin here. we've got a week to go before a big presidential race, important race. are you and the president both committed to putting politics aside for the next week and working together across party lines to deal with the needs of the people of this country and of the commonwealth? >> well, of course. i talked to governor romney on saturday and decided -- they decided not to politic in virginia yesterday, canceled all
5:24 am
of the events. the president decided to cancel his events today. i spoke with the president yesterday, with some other governors about preparations for the storm. and mark, when we have disasters like this, you know, there's not republican or democrat hurricanes. we're working together. fema's on the ground. and it is a team effort, all hands on deck. and when the storm passes, we'll have six or seven days left to make the closing arguments to the american people about, in my case, why mitt romney's best for jobs and debt and energy in virginia. but right now, the focus clearly is on public safety. >> governor, we've been watching some clips taken from ocean city, maryland. and now we're looking at a scene from virginia beach. and i realize that law enforcement officials are stretched thin in situations like this. but what, if anything, can be done about these knuckleheads who insist upon going out and maybe trying to surf the big waves or getting pictures of the big waves and come into close contact with potential danger that puts other people in danger?
5:25 am
>> you know, we're going to have law enforcement offices doing everything that they can. but at some point when it becomes too dangerous for law enforcement, if people make risky and bad decisions, they're going to be doing that at their own peril. so you always have some during these storms, but overwhelmingly people in virginia are heeding the calls. we've got lots of shelters set up. we've got several places that have emergency mandatory evacuatio evacuations. they're complying. overall people are doing exactly what they need to do. they're staying off the roads, and that's a good thing. people that make bad decisions are going to be doing that at their own peril. >> governor bob mcdonnell, thank you so much for being with us and know that our thoughts and our prayers are going to be with you and all the great people of your state over the next, gosh, i'd say 24 hours, but it might be more like 72 hours. this storm is a monster. good luck. >> governor, thank you. >> well, thanks, joe. thanks, mika. appreciate it. up next -- >> harold, let me ask harold
5:26 am
really quickly, harold, a new poll out showing that the president is up by four points in virginia right now. the numbers are all over the place, but this is an abc/"washington post" poll this past weekend. the president, in doing his job, because i'm not suggesting that this is cynical, is going to be visiting virginia over the next week. he will be visiting, like every president, every state impacted by this hurricane. the president standing next to a popular governor like bob mcdonnell working together, there's no way to look at it other than a political advantage for president obama in a state that mitt romney has to win. >> i would agree. and here governor mcdonnell in answering mark's question has to make residents and voters feel good that if federal assets are needed, they will be delivered irrespective of politics. i think as you look at the numbers, though, i think there's a great argument that there's built into those numbers some
5:27 am
assumptions about turnout. >> you're talking the virginia poll. >> the virginia numbers. i think even nationally, particularly the state-by-state polls in virginia, there's a big assumption around youth turnout, black voter turnout. and the question has to be asked not only without the storm but obviously with what we're anticipating, what impact might that have on early vote and for that matter the actual election day turnout which you say 72 hours, there are many who believe that people may be without power through election day. >> you're saying in that scenario, if it drives down the vote in some demographics, it actual lly turns out helping mi romney. >> the fact that the voter -- the number of the sample has an overrepresentation of democrats versus republicans. and romney seems to be doing well amongst independents. >> yeah. >> harold, thank you. up next, a conversation with valerie jarrett. her personal thoughts on the final campaign of president obama. also, "the atlantic's" list of this year's brave thinkers.
5:28 am
editor in chief james bennett joins us ahead on "morning joe."
5:29 am
a hybrid? most are just no fun to drive. now, here's one that will make you feel alive. meet the five-passenger ford c-max hybrid. c-max says ha. c-max says wheeee.
5:30 am
which is what you get, don't you see? cause c-max has lots more horsepower than prius v, a hybrid that c-max also bests in mpg. say hi to the all-new 47 combined mpg c-max hybrid. our schools shouldn't be 47th in anything. when i see that our schools are 47th in spending per student, i just can't accept that. proposition 38 bypasses sacramento, and makes education a real priority- with the funding, to our local schools and the accountability from our local schools... that we'll need to improve student learning in every classroom. so we can stay 47th... or we can choose proposition 38. i'm voting yes on 38... because it makes our children #1.
5:31 am
earlier in the show, we played our interview with
5:32 am
president obama after his campaign event in nashua, new hampshire, over the weekend. senior white house adviser, valerie jarrett, invited us to that event to see the president campaign in person in the final days before the election. he was a little surprised to see you there in the crowd, joe. did you see that? >> yeah, it was a shock. they put us there. and there's a union guy in front of me, grandson there. i was official photographer for him. >> that was nice. >> really good guy. >> he says he watches. >> a lot of really excited people there. a lot of "morning joe" viewers there. i tell you what, valerie, you know, think about being valerie jarrett and meeting this young guy in chicago. >> 21 years ago. >> 21 years ago. >> his wife, michelle. >> and michelle, and seeing them rise up and all the things that they've been through and then here we are nine days left in the campaign.
5:33 am
the last campaign. it's got to be bittersweet -- >> absolutely. >> -- not only for the president but certainly for valerie. >> and after the rally, we spoke with valerie about that, asking her to take off her senior adviser hat for a moment, discuss personally the state of the race from her personal perspective. >> well, i guess i didn't need a binder today. >> no, you don't need a binder. we have plenty of women without binders. >> it seemed like that got a great response. >> it did. it did. >> i think that was something that resonated. >> well, of course it did. because in this day and time, you need to find a binder full of women? it resonates not just here in new hampshire but everywhere i've been. women are saying what is going on? are we really going to go back to that kind of philosophy, or are we going to go forward? >> sorry, joe. joe's here, too. >> hello, joe. you can try to get in on this, too. >> no, i've learned. >> be careful there. >> let me just ask you very seriously, there's some polls that are showing mitt romney is gaining ground among women. i don't get it, but having said that, you all have to be a
5:34 am
little concerned to see those numbers. >> no, not really. the national polls are all over the place. you can find a poll that says just about anything. and where we look is really in the battleground states. and in the battleground states, the president is still double digits ahead when it comes to women. why is that? because i think women know that the president, their entire life, has been on their side fighting for them. >> let me ask you how you feel, ten days left. can you believe that? nine days. >> that's right. homestretch. >> eight years ago, the president was giving speeches in boston. he was a rising star. four years ago, you guys made history. >> yeah. >> it was so exciting. four years later now, you know that with this president, you've only got about a week left on the campaign trail. how are you feeling? is it bittersweet? i know you feel excited, you know you're going to win and go, team, go, but just personally, is it bittersweet knowing that ten days from now -- >> our last campaign? >> -- this is your last campaign. this is your last stretch.
5:35 am
how do you feel? >> it is a little bit like i can't believe that this is the last time he'll ever run for office again, but then i know that we have four more years and a lot of hard work left to do, right? as a country. and so i try not to think about that. i'm focused on getting out and spending as much time as i can. that's what the president's going to do. they may raise all this money in the super pacs. they will not outwork the president. and more bornt importantly, the not going to outwork the thousands of volunteers i have met all over this country who are making huge personal sacrifices because they believe in what the president stands for. >> when you look -- he obviously asks you for advice. that's why he gave you the position that you're in. is there -- when you have to sort of tell him what he needs to hear, is there something about his leadership style that he needs to refine? >> well, you know what? i think everybody grows. everybody matures. everybody develops, you know, their confidence. everybody's always said that you really can't be prepared to be the president. and until you're president, you
5:36 am
don't know what it's going to be like. one of the things that he has said upon reflection is that he's going to spend more time traveling around the country. a day like today is energizing, and the american people are hungry to be engaged, and he wants to be able to spend more time doing it. and that will hold congress accountable. what you saw today, the enthusiasm, we have to keep that energy going not just through the election to make sure he's re-elected but into a second term. as you know in the last campaign we said yes, we can. not yes, i can for the president. he cannot take on these challenges alone. we need to keep the kind of crowd we had in new hampshire, what we've seep all across the country. we need to win the election and then move into a second term and we need to bring our country forward together. and that's what president obama is absolutely committed to doing. >> all right. that was our conversation with valerie jarrett on saturday in nashua. that was nice. >> mark halperin, a week left, almost a week left. you go back to 2004 in boston,
5:37 am
and what a ride. what a ride over eight years. >> just an incredible experience for not just the president but all the people around him including valerie. and a lot of stability. you look at the people around him now making this fight to win re-election. it's basically the same group of one or two exceptions as the people who got him elected four years ago. and the stamina and endurance they've shown in both dealing with public service in the government but also helping him try to win re-election, really impressive. >> but mike, it's so much easier to run as the challenger going against the status quo, going against eight years of republican leadership, running against the iraq war. four years later, you've got to run on your own record. the crowds aren't quite as excited. there's not as much hope. you're not talking about change. it is harder, and every president faces this running for re-election. it's just harder the second time around. >> every president, every elected official, i would submit, because once you're in office, you have to make decisions. decisions affect people. some adversely.
5:38 am
and you're not going to be able to ride the wave that he rode four years ago. but to mark's point, no matter what happens on election day, his story, the personal drama of his story and his presidency has been an incredible american tale. an incredible tale. >> harold, final thought. >> look, we said four years ago sitting here that no american would ever be able to say that you can't grow up to any kid. you can grow up and be president. his legacy is huge. one of the legacies is that i listen to valerie. she couldn't help but be excited. but the next eight days are going to be a great test for that campaign and frankly even for mitt romney. it's going to be fun for the country to have this close of a race right here at the end. >> it is going down to the very end. >> except for the storm part. next in pursuit of big ideas, "the atlantic's" list of brave thinkers ahead. also the latest on hurricane sandy. we're back in a moment. [ female announcer ] born from the sweet monk fruit,
5:39 am
something this delicious could only come from nature. new nectresse. the 100% natural no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. new nectresse. sweetness naturally. new nectresse. customer erin swenson bought so, i'm happy. today. sales go up... i'm happy. it went out today... i'm happy. what if she's not home? (together) she won't be happy. use ups! she can get a text alert, reroute... even reschedule her package.
5:40 am
it's ups my choice. are you happy? i'm happy. i'm happy. i'm happy. i'm happy. i'm happy. happy. happy. happy. happy. (together) happy. i love logistics. [ husband ] transfer! [ male announcer ] free data transfer at home. you just deleted all the photos! you did! no you did! [ male announcer ] or free data transfer when you buy a windows 8 computer at staples. another way staples makes it easier to upgrade. when you buy a windows 8 computer at staples.
5:41 am
why they're always there to talk. i love you, james. don't you love me? i'm a robot. i know. i know you're a robot! but there's more in you than just circuits and wires! uhhh. (cries) a machine can't give you what a person can. that's why ally has knowledgeable people there for you, night and day. ally bank. your money needs an ally. i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped. man: so we went to fidelity. we talked about where we were and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get free one-on-one help from america's retirement leader.
5:42 am
♪ 42 past the hour. with us from washington, the editor in chief of "the atlantic," james bennett. the latest issue features this year's list of brave thinkers. and on the cover, mayor michael bloomberg. welcome back to the show, james. >> thank you. >> so first of all, i guess maybe if you could define a brave thinker as it's characterized in this issue. >> the idea of this issue is to assemble a group of people who are across all sorts of professions and forms of expertise who are taking some type of big risk to their reputation, career and maybe even their life in pursuit of a big idea. >> right. so what you've got here, you've got an interview with michael bloomberg. i'll just tell you about it, that's on obesity.
5:43 am
he is interviewed about this. he talks about obesity plaguing the country. and he says in part this is the first disease that's bahn from a rich person's disease to a poor earn p's disease. generally it would go in the other direction. for the first time in the history of the world, this year more people will die from the effects of too much food than from starvation. the correlation between the rise in obesity and the consumption of sugar is just up 100% no matter what the beverage companies think or say. they see this train coming down the tracks at them, and that's why they're trying to get people to move over to coke zero or diet coke or diet pepsi. there's an article i read in the paper today about how children will not live as long as their parents. children who are obese. >> yeah. i mean, he has really, i think, sparked a national debate about this issue by taking a very controversial stand in new york, pushing through this new regulation saying restaurants can't serve any drink larger than 16 ounces. there's been opposition across the board. "the times" polling showed
5:44 am
basically every demographic group doesn't like this idea. he's been mocked for it. both at home and internationally. but he's standing his ground. he said they said the same thing about me when i banned cigarettes. this is an important issue. we've tried to tackle it all sorts of ways. and you've got to lead from in front. >> mike barnicle. >> you know, jim, that leads to one of the more interesting aspects of the interview with bloomberg in which he talks about job approval ratings. if he leaves office with a job approval rating, he says it proves he's not doing his job. >> yeah, mike. and you know, politicians say that kind of thing, and they always say they don't pay attention to the polls. i think you've got to look at mike bloomberg's career and say he actually has governed according to this philosophy. which is to -- he says people don't know what's in their own best interests. your obligation as a leader is to get out in front and point them in the right direction and then build a constituency behind your policies. and he's certainly doing that with this soda ban. >> hey, james, it's willie.
5:45 am
beyond the mountain dew issue, this interview is drawing a lot of attention for the mayor's criticism of president obama. he says he could have done more on education. he says giving him credit for killing bin laden's like giving harry truman credit for dropping a bomb. he says he's been unable to pull congress together. he was critical of mitt romney as well. but really kind of went after the president in this interview. >> yeah. i mean, he goes after both of them. but he does specifically -- he says obama's great accomplishment was really getting elected. harold said a minute ago that's also an important part of his legacy, obviously, what he represents. but that he has failed, and his central obligation as an executive which is to pull both sides together. he says nobody else would have been able to do that either, but it really was the president's obligation. >> mike barnicle. >> yeah, mike. >> you know, jim, the other great thinkers that you've got in here, one of them jumps right out at me, the president of georgetown university. talk about him a bit. just his assumption to the
5:46 am
presidency changed, the school changed, the tenor of the school. >> yeah, this is a really interesting guy who's taken a strong stand in favor of -- meaningfully in favor of academic freedom. he rallied behind sandra fluke, the georgetown student, who was being criticized, who stood up to argue in favor of publicly -- support for contraception. subsequently there was a ton of criticism at georgetown for having kathleen sebelius come speak at the school. he said in both cases to create a clear space. >> what courageous thing has he done regarding a conservative, i'm just curious there? any conservatives on this list here? >> we've got -- yeah, we've got -- >> who, of course, upheld obamacare. so yes, go ahead, james. >> we've got gene powell on the list who's the -- was appointed by rick perry.
5:47 am
he's a republican and very conservative, chairman of the board of trustees at the university of texas. >> right. >> so no, joe, we do have some conservatives on this list, too. >> i also see you have a rock band out of russia, very conservative rock band out of russia as well. so what is the common thread here? between these brave thinkers, people that are willing to stand up to, you know, conventional wisdom? >> yeah. they're willing to take some chances. and advance big ideas provoke things. we've got a kid on this list, who at the age of 14, he built a nuclear reactor. he's skipping college now. >> it's kind of frightening, actually. >> yeah, yeah. there's some edge to this. >> you know what i was doing at 14? i mean, you don't want to know. willie, what were you doing at 14? >> i wasn't to nuclear yet. >> you were thinking big. >> the good news is that he built it. the bad news is he lives in iraq.
5:48 am
>> not good. >> willie was actually working on clean coal. go ahead, james. tell us about this 14-year-old. >> he's skipping college now to pursue cold fusion. and his attitude is, you know, too many people go into -- get kind of captured by the scientific establishment, and they stop thinking big. we've got another scientist on this list, a harvard researcher, discovered a cell in mice to become benign again. instead of what other scientist does these days is to secretly conduct his research until he can make a killing on it, he released the molecule publicly so he can get as many researchers going on the subject as possible. because he believed it was the most efficient, most honest way to do science. >> tell us quickly about frank ocean. that's an interesting selection. >> yeah, i mean, here's a guy who's a very, very popular singer that came out as gay, started singing about that subject. he actually has been widely supported for it. but when he did it, it seemed like a terribly risky thing to
5:49 am
do, something that put his career on the line. >> not to mention it was in the hip-hop world which make it more brave. and the response to it from jay-z and others made it more significant. >> the new issue of "the atlantic" is "brave thinkers." james bennet, thank you very much. >> be looking for my survey, i mean my column next week in "the atlantic" in defense of mountain dew. >> we're in trouble. when we come back, 50 million people are in the path of hurricane sandy. bill karins will have a check on the flooding and what forecasters are calling a life-threatening storm surge. we'll be right back. jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn... giada... really good. yes! [ jack ] ...and alicia. ♪ this girl is on fire [ male announcer ] use any citi® card to get the benefits of private pass. more concerts. more events.
5:50 am
more experiences. [ jack ] hey, who's boring now? [ male announcer ] get more access with a citi card. [ crowd cheering, mouse clicks ]
5:51 am
5:52 am
5:53 am
welcome back to "morning joe." you're looking at lady liberty across the battery park in lower manhattan, and the waves are churning. we just made it through the high tide cycle. the subway system did not get flooded. it was not expected to. this was the equivalent water level to irene, by the way. and the next high tide cycle is supposed to be the peak, about 12 hours from now, approximately 8:30 this evening is the key time for areas right around new york city. and if the subway is going to flood, that's when it's going to happen. and so we'll keep an eye on that for you later on this evening. but we made it through this one, at least. it's amazing, here we are, the end of october, and we have a hurricane that is now only 200 miles off the jersey shore. it's holding on to its hurricane characteristics. it hasn't even become a hybrid
5:54 am
yet. it's been over the warm waters of the gulf stream the last 12 hours. and if anything, it intensified. now we expect it to slowly become that hybrid storm as it makes landfall. approximately 255 miles southeast of atlantic city, new jersey. that is the spot that i'm now pinpointing for landfall later on this evening. it's moving at 20 miles per hour. so it's flying. you can do the math yourself. we are about 12 hours away from landfall of sandy. winds are starting to pick up. once you get winds in the 50 to 60-mile-per-hour raknge, power outages will begin. jfk, a gust to 51, islip, 46. strong winds are arriving. they're up and down cape cod in rhode island. we're still very wind from from d.c., baltimore to ocean city. i'm more concerned with rain in your area. heavy rain right now, i-95. power outages, they'll be increasing throughout the day. this storm is so huge and immense, it may not be the most intense storm ever, but the size of it, look at the waves in
5:55 am
virginia beach. i mean, this goes all the way up and down from the carolinas northwards. these high tide cycles are just doing damage up and down the coast. we've seen numerous pictures of water on the streets in areas like atlantic city already. so the forecast, again, comes inland tonight. it should be over the top of philadelphia by about 2:00 a.m. with still winds of 75 miles per hour. and finally, i did mention that heavy rain. it's set up and it's not going to go anywhere. d.c. to baltimore, flash flooding potential for you. power outages beginning in southern new england and all eyes on that next high tide cycle at 8:30 this evening in the greater new york city area. hurricane sandy leaving its mark. we'll be right back. stay tuned for more on "morning joe."
5:56 am
5:57 am
5:58 am
5:59 am
welcome back to "morning joe." time to talk about what we learned today. willie? >> i learned sometimes these things are overhyped, and they have been in the past. but this one if you talk to anybody, bill karins, it sounds very serious, so take every precaution. >> mike? >> i learned that my anowance level knows no bounds when it comes to people who go to the beach and try to surf and take pictures of these 15-foot waves. you could get in trouble. >> bill karins, unflappable national treasure. >> bill karins. >> he is. i think harry truman was the first to call bill karins a national treasure. and it's the one thing -- >> i think you're right. >> no matter